


What Makes a Spirit Fighter

by Jeenius_the_Dork



Series: Medium Wind [6]
Category: Linked Universe - Fandom, Super Smash Brothers
Genre: BOTW Link is the agent of chaos, Fire Emblem Heroes references, Fire Emblem and Persona heavy lmao OOPS, Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda), Medium Wind, Persona 3 Spoilers, Persona 5: The Royal Spoilers, Phantom Thieves being good friends, Smash Bros AU, no beta we die like Marin
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-02 23:08:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 24,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24224848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jeenius_the_Dork/pseuds/Jeenius_the_Dork
Summary: Medium Wind is now Smash Bros flavoured. In this tale of cosmic proportions join Wind as he just vibes with some spirits in the Smash Bros universe all while trying to keep his sanity whenever he's around the Fire Emblems
Series: Medium Wind [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1469159
Comments: 74
Kudos: 134





	1. So-this is what you've been up to

**Author's Note:**

> Yes this is still a Linked Universe fic and an offshoot of the original Medium Wind series, sue me. I can loosely promise that i'll one day finish the original Medium Wind series but it's going to take some time because of [REDACTED]. anyways have fun.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new fighter joins the roster and they aren't exactly alone. Who is the tiny goddess and why are they there?

Wind was living what he could only describe as his worst nightmare. Nintendo had a lot of really big popular franchises, and a lot of them had some pretty edgy backstories. Dead parents, dead ancestors who were vampire hunters, parents they had to kill because otherwise a kingdom sized dragon would throw the world into chaos, Cloud Strife. Needless to say Wind’s “special powers” were going absolutely haywire and he was reduced to staying in his room staring at the ceiling wondering when they could go back home and meet up with the others. Despite everything wrong with seeing the spirits of his friends’ family or friends he was far more okay with that than his fellow Smash fighters.

Namely because there were well over 80 fighters in Smash to deal with, some of them being his friends from the crazy linked universe. There were a mere 9 Links and he was hoping it wouldn’t grow much larger than that. 

A feeling of overwhelming dread washed over him once again, further ascertaining he may well be proven horribly wrong in the near future. If there were going to be more Links he hoped they would be fun, and it wouldn’t become an absolute edge fest like things seemed to be turning up as in Smash.

Honestly, as much as he liked Joker and thought he was a cool dude it took all the self restraint in the world to keep himself from attacking the asshole detective that kept following Joker around. The detective, who he assumed was Akechi from Joker’s stories, did try to kill the Phantom Thief leader more than once, even if one of them was “successful”. Why Akechi stuck around he would never know and did not have the energy to ask.

Still, Wind knew there would be more fighters. From insider info, also known as Snake sneaking into a meeting between Master Hand and Mr Sakurai himself, the newest fighter would be another Fire Emblem character. From the track record with the others this could be an alright thing like Roy, a single pretty albino lady who was possibly also a dragon but that was besides the point, she left Wind and Roy alone for the most part. On the other hand, it could be the route of Marth, Chrom, Lucina, Robin and  _ Corrin _ , who all had either terrible fathers or were plagued by dozens of spirits of their friends and family. 

Looking at you Lucina, with the entire roster of Fire Emblem Awakening. No, seriously his heart went out to her, she was living an actual tragic reality but seeing her and the fifty people that followed was a little too much for him. Whenever Lucina was around he always grew a massive headache. 

Gosh he really hoped the new Fire Emblem fighter wouldn’t be anything like the latter route.

It was finally time to greet the new fighter in the Smash Mansion. He dragged his body out of bed, before dragging tiny Time along with him. Why tiny Time was being such an ass about it Wind wouldn’t be able to fully tell, he assumed it was something about being reverted back to a child for the sake of a fighting game again. Regardless, Time was acting the age he currently presented as and Wind was over it.

Standing as far away from Lucina as the lobby of the mansion allowed them to, they waited for the newest fighter. The name kept slipping from Wind’s mind but then again he really tried not to think too much of it as he waited in his room either for a practice match or for the portals to consume him, Time and Wild again and bring him back to Hyrule where they could focus on the other problem named the Lizard.

Finally the doors of the mansion swung open with the grace of Donkey Kong trying to bust out some of those sick dance moves the Earthbound kids keep trying to teach the big ape. Standing there at the door were a pair of blue haired anime characters, a male and a female. The female’s tights were immediately met with the feeling of disgust from Wind. Maybe he was spending too much time hanging out with Warriors and the man’s fashion tips were rubbing off on him. Or maybe Wind just had the brain cells to know these tights were the worst things to grace Smash Bros, maybe besides Corrin’s bare tetanus infected feet.

There was a rare moment of calm silence for the longest of moments. Whether it be the dumbfoundedness of everyone realising yet another avatar character  _ with a sword _ from  _ Fire Emblem _ had made it into the game yet again, or the speechlessness over the female’s tights was hard to discern. The one to break the silence was, surprisingly enough, Wild. Who pranced over to the blue haired mercenaries shouting something that didn’t even sound like a word, even from Wild’s Hyrule. It took a hot moment for Wind to realise that was a name Wild was shouting as the face of the female lightened up and the male just turned and nodded in acknowledgement.

“Byleth’s in Smash guys isn’t this great??” Wild asked, quickly dragging his gaze over as many of his fellow fighters as he possibly could. Most of them just blinked, or shrugged, or looked between their franchise companions, while the other Fire Emblem fighters seemed to be recoiling back into the depths of their souls upon realizing yet another Fire Emblem swordie rep had been added to the game. Sure it was great having Byleth there with them but, oh dear what were the fans going to say? After Chrom they weren’t so sure it was going to be very nice.Time and Wind just shared a look, how the fresh fuck did Wild know Byleth?

Just as they were about to receive the answer to that question, as Wild opened his mouth to give the thrilling explanation, a small anthropomorphic cup walked into the scene. It was as if they pulled it right out of the 1930s, in beautiful hand drawn animated beauty. Could it be, it was!!

A Mii gunner wearing the Sans outfit was the one who broke the silence “CUPHEAD’S IN SMASH!!” Followed by the statement was a roar of rejoice. The fabled Cuphead was in Smash even if it was simply as another Mii fighter. Everyone was cheering, everyone was throwing their hands in the air like they just don’t care. Well, maybe not the other Fire Emblem fighters, they seemed to still be getting over their initial fear. As the fighters save for the Links, Fire Emblos, the Byleths and Luigi paraded off with their new favourite cup the room calmed once more. The two Byleths watched in total shock as their inclusion to the game was completely overruled, though they weren’t completely surprised. They were warned this may happen.

A new strangely gloved hand fell upon male Byleth’s shoulder. He looked upon Chrom to find a reassuring smile, “You get used to it. Welcome to Smash Brothers, friend.” It wasn’t as reassuring as Chrom intended, Byleth was sure, however he still appreciated the gesture regardless.

As the Fire Emblem reps began to explain the whole shebang to the Byleths, Wind and Time approached Wild with the same question still burning in the back of their minds. “How exactly do you know Byleth?” 

Wild launched them into a tale of epic proportions. It was right after he’d saved princess Zelda from Calamity Ganon, they were beginning to rebuild the larger regions of Hyrule. It was mostly the princess actually he was there to slay any remaining monsters there may be roaming the land. Needless to say Wild was insanely bored during this time so he did what any teenager with a smidge of technological prowess and no ounce of self respect would do. He homebrewed his Sheikah Slate.

With this new skill in his hands Wild did what he had to do, the absolute mad man. While the princess wasn’t looking he worked day and night so he could be able to add the only thing that matters to him onto the Sheikah Slate. Fire Emblem Three Houses. And for hours on end he would play this wonderous game full of magic and monsters, war and peace and most importantly, romancing his favourite anime waifus and husbandos until finally he’d successfully beaten the last of the four routes. The Church had been obliterated, and he was finally fully victorious. This was the most accomplished Wild had felt in his life, even more so than the time he saved Zelda. No this time he saved Fodlan and the rest of the world four whole times.

At the end of his tale he gazed upon his friends faces, beaming in excitement over their reactions. Instead he was met with the face of neutral displeasure from both “children”. “So what you’re trying to say is you messed with ancient technology not even the princess was able to figure out so you could play a video game that doesn’t even exist in our realm and that’s why you know Byleth?” tiny Time asked.

Wild nodded aggressively, even more proud of himself than before. Rather than trying to put words into the total disappointment in his soul Time let out a disgruntled sigh before going off to brood in his room once again. As he disappeared he shouted behind him “Welcome to Smash.” He wasn’t seen again for the next three days. Some say they could hear frustrated screams coming from his bedroom.

Back to the main point, it was immediately obvious to Wind after a new day of observing Byleth there was something  _ off  _ about them. Not in a bad untrustworthy way, however whatever it was he couldn’t quite put his finger on it just yet. 

Around a day before the first official match with Byleth it finally manifested itself in the form of a green haired girl with pointy elf ears much like his own. From what he’d heard from Marth, Roy and possibly all the Fire Emblem lords, the pointy eared people from their world were called manaketes or something like that. Again like the pretty albino who hung around Roy, they turned into dragons and while he was skeptical about the one with Byleth he couldn’t rule out the possibility the Byleths had some kind of connection to a dead manakete child.

The stranger part about it was even they seemed to be able to communicate to the girl. With the exception of the Belmonts no one ever knew what he was getting at whenever he accidentally let it slip he could see things he wasn’t supposed to. But Byleth here, Byleth probably would know and even talked to the spirit in their head. The thing that rendered him absolutely flabbergasted was the one entity seemed to be shared between the Byleths. He wasn’t going to question that part since the Robins were both the tacticians of Ylisse and yet there was technically only one tactician in Ylisse at all times.

It was finally time for the match and that’s when things finally made sense. Male Byleth fought valiantly against Lucina, Chrom and female Robin (a real family outing) waving those funky bone weapons of his around and slapping the Awakening crew around.

There it came, down from the heavens rained a Smash Ball, glowing rainbow and beautiful as ever. Despite the best efforts of the Awakening crew Byleth has taken the ball. And with that Final Smash was released. A jpeg of the girl appeared on screen, while Byleth whipped the Sword of the Creator at his fellow Fire Emblem lords sending them flying off into the sky.

“You saw that right? That girl? Couldn’t have just been me right?” TIme asked.

Wind could barely hold himself back from breaking down and weeping on the spot. For the second time ever someone knew what he was talking about and it wasn’t because of a technicality like Legend’s pictures. Time saw it, everyone saw it, if the awed sounds from the crowd weren’t enough of an indication.

Reality began to crumble around him, rendering him to nothing but the intense feeling of regret as he realized what his answer to tiny Time was, “Nope!” Tiny Time shrugged then returned his attention to the match.

Wind honestly would have pulled his hair out at that moment. He could have been bald Wind. Is that something you want? No of course not. So close yet so far from someone finally understanding him, and yet here they were. A sympathetic pat from Luigi later and he decided to just continue on.

-

For a while after that Wild trailed Byleth, whichever one didn’t really seem to matter regardless of which Byleth it was the one consistent thing about them was the little ghost girl everyone had seen in their Final Smash that proceeded to remain unseen afterwards. He remained inconspicuous, listening to what little bits of conversation he could pick up from the mercenary and mysterious ghost. The fact this child of a ghost constantly berated Byleth for doing some rather strange things, such as trying to return lost items to the other Smash fighters, was hilarious but a complete mystery to Wind.

Time, resigned as ever, tried his best to keep Wind in line but whether it be from his current physical age or realizing he had no power over Wind in the Smash-verse he gave up very quickly.

Nothing would stop Wind either, for once he actually wanted to know who this spirit was. Something, he NEVER thought he would want to say. If  _ ANY _ of the other Link’s ghost friends heard a word about this he would never be left alone, he would never have a moment of peace.

Wind laughed to himself, he didn’t already that wouldn’t stop them. He could practically see the white haired stranger from Time’s mask dancing in place upon the revelation. He shuddered at the thought of ever interacting with Time’s masks again. Anyways, he was excited to hear more from the spirits for once.

Things finally started clicking into place when he was finally able to explore the monastery a little. In the chapel he’d seen the archbishop Rhea praying to the goddess of Fodlan, the goddess Sothis. The girl residing with the mercenaries was also named Sothis, which very well may mean the Byleths were housing a goddess in their heads. Surprisingly enough that was one of the easiest things to grasp, after all in a way he was in a similar situation only with the Triforce of Courage rather than Farore herself.

That was one mystery solved and dealt with. He turned heel to leave the chapel, nearly walking straight into Male Byleth who, from the crossed arms and very subtle displeasure on his face, seemed to be waiting for him to do so. 

Wind  _ almost _ screamed, the only thing keeping him quiet was the knowledge this was a holy place. You don’t scream in a church. He’d learned that much from the Belmonts, who sometimes didn’t exactly heed their own advice but that was besides the point.Taking a deep breath he found his resolve to keep calm and try to continue on like he wasn’t being suspicious at all.

His found resolve soon shattered away as the green haired girl appeared beside the silent man and with the most deadpan voice ever spoke, “That’s him. That’s the one following you both everywhere.”

The hero of Wind’s couldn’t help but let out a nervous giggle, grimacing. So much for being conspicuous, perhaps he should start taking those sneaking lessons from Snake again. Or maybe it wasn’t exactly the time to be considering that especially since Byleth seemed to be demanding an explanation.

Curse him and that stern professor-ly expression. It didn’t really matter if  _ Byleth _ knew about his stranger powers, it’s not like he could avoid it with them being able to actually communicate with Sothis. 

“I can explain everything. ” WInd said taking in his surroundings once again. After a moment of consideration over where they were he added, “Somewhere less public.”

And that was how he supposed he found himself back in his room with the Byleths and Sothis. Time, the moment he saw them decided it was time to go harass Wild in his child-llike state. Either that or the two of them would team up and harass Mario about eating butterflies again.

One day that poor plumber was going to get a break.

“Okay so I can see Sothis.” Wind said the moment they were alone. Right to the point, unlike how he responded to his closest allies.

The Byleths shared a look in complete silence. Wind could feel himself sweating and for once it wasn’t because of the stupid green hero’s tunic he was being forced to wear for the tournament. The Byleths nodded before turning their attention back to Wind.

“We’re glad at least someone else knows. You must know how odd it looks to be seemingly talking to yourself.” Female Byleth spoke.

“Uuuuugh I know right?!” Wind sighed in relief flopping back into a beanbag chair. “Don’t even get me started about how hard it is to contain the sass when they ask why it looks like I’ve seen a ghost.”

Seeing male Byleth smile ever so slightly was enough of a victory for Wind. It was so nice being able to speak to someone about this and finally have them actually understand. They didn’t ask anything overly personal and it wasn’t like they found out because he was panicking....yeah he promised to stop thinking about that. 

The more he talked with the Byleths the more relaxed he became. It began to occur to him it may be a better idea to just tell everyone about his ability rather than being sneaky about it or avoiding the topic all together. For all he knew someone else could understand him more than he thought and they were just too polite to say anything? Or maybe he was getting too far into it.

By the time Time returned, with Wild in tow and Mario fretting behind them (likely the butterflies one again) the Byleths were out socialed. Something Wind didn’t expect out of a professor however Byleth wasn’t exactly the normal kind of professor. A former mercenary with the power of the gods teaching children around their age.

Byleth would fit in perfectly.

-

Now Byleth, Byleth had no idea what she was getting herself into. When the blue garbed Link came over asking if she wanted to spend time with him she couldn’t really help but say yes. Link reminded her a lot of her students, the unfathomable energy and absolute crackhead schemes were so familiar and yet still surprised her every time. If she could equate him to  _ something _ it would probably be Caspar with a hint of Claude and a dash of Sylvain. 

She couldn’t remember exactly what Link had said, something about a bug collection, before she was dragged along anyways like an excited puppy. Needless to say she was a little worried. Sending a pleading look to her male counterpart, who only shrugged before continuing to sip tea with Princess Peach and Sheik, she accepted her fate.

From the corner of her eye she spotted the red Italian plumber, beginning to run after her and the excited knight. Which in turn caught the attention of Snake and Toon Link, or Toonie as she’d begin calling him.

“Oh it better not be the bug collection…” she could hear him sighing loudly. The mercenary began to sweat a little. That wasn’t reassuring in the slightest. 

The professor could only watch wordlessly as Link produced an entire collection of various bugs and butterflies, presenting them as if he were proud of the collection, before slowly shoving one in his mouth. If this was some kind of initiation she wasn’t aware of she was terrified. If not, she was still absolutely scared for her life.

Sothis’s voice rang through her head, “Are you not used to this already? You can’t seriously believe that this isn’t something your students would do.” The thing that probably hurt the most was that the goddess was right. 

Later that day she met up with Toonie once again, who just handed her a cup of tea and pat her on the shoulder. “You get used to him. Sadly we can’t sell him to the circus.” under his breath he not so subtly added “Believe me, we’ve tried.”

Deciding it was a better idea not to question anything Byleth continued to drink her tea. Despite the chaos, and bug eating and recreational battles between friends, family and people from completely different worlds, she felt like for now Smash Bros felt a little like home.


	2. A Legend-ary Visit

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A dear friend visits Smash to deliver some news, but gets a little sidetracked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No I don't have anything else to write, what are you talking about D A D?

When Zelda received her invitation to enter the Smash Bros tournament she was reasonably reluctant to share it with Impa. After the last few times of being kidnapped, nearly sacrificed to Ganon, turned into a painting to resurrect Ganon and all that Triforce mumbo jumbo the guards were keeping a far closer eye on her than before. It was a little ironic considering her knights  _ were _ the ones who were corrupted by Agahnim though that was besides the point. If she thought Impa would react badly she couldn’t imagine how to bring it up to Link, whenever he returned home.

Link was, for lack of better terms, a  _ little _ overprotective. Whether it be the fact she was rumoured to be his sister, or that he was getting tired of constantly having to fight Ganon for one reason or another she couldn’t really say, regardless being in Smash would likely be out of the question.

Thus, Zelda tucked away the letter as if it had never been there, laying her hands on her desk as Impa entered the room. What Lady Impa didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

-

It didn’t really bother Wind that he wasn’t as popular a character as Wild or tiny Time was. Honestly he actually preferred to just sit back and watch as his friends duked it out in the battlefield, it was far easier that way.   
  


However being in the audience had its major setbacks as well. They came in the form of characters being able to spectate the matches of their friends or family. Sometimes he’d be able to see a visibly drunk Conker cheering for someone, no one could really say who since he was so slammed not even Conker seemed to know who he was anymore. Other times it was the final member of the Chrobin family coming to cheer on his older sister or mother.

The most confusing and possibly concerning one of them all was actually for Zelda. See Zelda was the one from the Downfall Timeline, a fusion of both A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds, something that was regrettably familiar to Wind. He knew of a certain other person from that timeline who seemed to be merged together for indiscernible reasons. 

Thinking more about it, it likely had something to do with the merging timelines and all that nasty business with the Lizard. After all, his fellow Links existed in the same plane and things were being retconned left and right about them. What would stop the Zeldas from being retconned too?

He slumped further into his seat, as if he were falling asleep. There was only so much he could take of constant smash attacks, back aerials, Din’s Fire la dee da movements against a dog and a duck he could take. Honestly, the fact Duck Hunt Dog could survive this long when Joker nearly immediately was taken out was terrifying. Maybe Joker was just throwing the match, he’d never know.

“Hey.” an all too familiar voice broke him out of his sulking.

With his jaw nearly hitting the floor, Wind slowly faced Legend absolutely flabbergasted over his appearance. He eyed his fellow hero for a good long moment before every so eloquently asking, “What the FUCK are you doing here?”

Legend was understandably taken aback by this. He opened his mouth to speak before closing it again. Maybe Wind needed a moment to rethink what he just asked, after all three of their companions were already here, besides he had bigger fish to fry and the fact Wind hadn’t caught on rendered him completely speechless. Best not to make a big deal out of it maybe, for now at least. When he found his target things would be far different.

“You know what, that’s probably not super important. How did you get here? Is everyone alright?” Wind quickly began to ask, deciding dwelling on who Legend was here for wasn’t important. There  _ was _ a spooky scary Lizard out there with some dastardly plan in store for them, so being down three  _ scratch that _ four members was  _ NOT _ a good time.

Though Legend seemed thoroughly unphased by this. He waved off Wind’s unspoken worries as smooth as sandpaper, “Don’t worry we’re all taking a break at the ranch. By the way, if I don’t see Time tell him he’s a father now alright?”

With that the hero of Legend stood up and walked right out of the viewing area with that classic little shit bastard grin on his face. Leaving Wind even more shocked and perplexed than before. He quickly scrambled out of his seat, following after Legend shouting, “Time’s a FATHER?!?!?” There was NO way Legend was getting off that easy.

As he’d come to expect from the fashion disaster of a hero, Legend said nothing more about it until they reunited with tiny Time and Wild. Needless to say, anyone who didn’t know Time was actually a man in his 30’s stuck as a child again was in for a surprise.

Wind shuffled further away from Legend and the other Links as the words, “You’re a father,” escaped the hoarder’s mouth. He tried to remain calm as Bayonetta shot a distressed look towards them. If  _ Bayonetta _ was terrified beyond belief there was something very, VERY, wrong.

Yet still, Legend didn’t care. If only he was as concerned about his declaration as Bayo was.

“You can’t be serious. This young lad cannot be a father.” she said.

Legend shrugged. “I hate to break it to you, but that ‘young lad’ is actually a 30 year old man. It’s a complicated story.”

The more Bayonetta thought about it, the more she began to realise that handsome one eyed man with the strange face markings similar to kid Link’s mask just up and disappeared one day. Leaving kid Link in his wake. And the more she considered that, the more she began to realise he acted like an old fart very often. 

Blimey, that handsome old man was actually a child. And she  _ hated _ being bestowed with this knowledge. The next place she found herself was beside that adorable angel boy who feared her. She lay down on the ground beside him, uttering the same repeated words over and over again. “He’s not a child.” 

Needless to say, Pit was never more scared and confused in his life.

All while this was happening, Time was having a crisis of his own. He was a father. He was a father and he wasn’t there for the birth of his child. If the Hands weren’t able to smite him from his very existence, he would have throttled them right then and there. Instead he opted to scream into the Smash Heavens.

Hearing the commotion, Zelda finally entered the room. She’d always liked Young Link, he was a funny fellow who reminded her a lot of her own Link when he was younger. Whatever was distressing him she wanted to be there for him.

That was, until she saw who was the perpetrator. It wasn’t Wario, it wasn’t Ganondorf, admittedly a very chill man after the constant torment Link and kid Link brought upon him. No, it was a very familiar face decked in red who immediately diverted his attention to her.

“YOU.” he yelled.

Zelda giggled nervously. There he was. She glanced back towards the door. If she could slowly inch her way back out…

“Oh you are NOT getting away from me that easily!” the man yelled.

Everyone in the room watched speechlessly as the Link charged at the princess, tackling her to the ground. Wind, tiny Time and Wild all watched hopelessly lost for a moment, before realising that was  _ his _ Zelda. Which only raised even more concerns. In what universe was it okay to get into a brawl with princess Zelda?

Maybe don’t answer that question.

“What is wrong with you? It’s a simple tournament where popular game characters fight each other! Look, even your friends are here. Now get off me you absolute  _ rat.” _ Zelda yelled struggling to push the, understandably, even more enraged man child off of her.

“YOU TAKE THAT BACK YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I HATE BEING CALLED A RAT!” Legend shouted, with a face that screamed he was about to burst into tears. The rat nickname was old and terrible and more than anyone the person who started the trend wanted it to die off but like moths to a lamp, it persisted regardless.

“Then maybe you should STOP SMELLING LIKE ONE AND TELL ME WHAT YOUR PROBLEM IS!” Zelda shouted back.

“Uh...guys?” Wind tried to pipe up through the ensuing chaos. His voice was drowned out by the incomprehensible screaming of Legend and Zelda. Knowing when to cut his losses he took a seat beside an equally exhausted looking Bowser.

“Kids, these days…” the king of the Koopas sighed. Despite being a child himself, Wind had to agree.

The one person who seemed to be revelling in this discourse was a single green clad Mii Gunner, grinning wildly as they continuously shifted their gaze between their cell phone and the arguing duo. Sweet, sweet discourse.

Having enough of the horrible fight unfolding, Ken and Simon pried Legend and Zelda away from each other all while they continued kicking and screaming petty insults at each other. Practically tying them to the chairs they were shoved in Dr Mario arrived on the scene, clipboard in hand looking between the two.

“Alrighty, tell Dr Mario what’s wrong.” he started.

“She abandoned her kingdom to be in Smash, leaving no indication to Impa what was even happening. What would happen if Ganon was resurrected AGAIN? Is this really how you want to fall of the kingdom to happen?” Legend asked.

“Have you forgotten what happened in Melee, Brawl and the one we shall not speak of?” Zelda responded. “Both the Link and Zelda of those worlds, including one that Link as a child in Melee’s case, were a part of Smash and that went perfectly fine.”

She paused for a moment, truly thinking about what she’d just said. Now if she remembered her history book correctly, then the disappearance of the princess and her Link, both in child and adult form was what caused the break in their timeline, creating the one she and her Link came from. Either that or it was something stupid like, Link died while fighting Ganon. Regardless of which it was, her Link was right. Disappearing without even telling Impa where she was heading off to wasn’t the smartest plan, however she was the holder of the Triforce of Wisdom that didn’t make her street smart it made her book smart and have really cool magic powers.

That was besides the point though, if anyone should be mad here it was her after all, “YOU LEFT WITHOUT SAYING ANYTHING EITHER WHY ARE YOU ANGRY AT ME?!”

“I DIDN’T HAVE A CHOICE YOU ABSOLUTE IDIOT. THE PORTAL JUST APPEARED IN FRONT OF ME!” Legend screeched back. 

“Oh so you were thrown right in by some unknown force? Sure, I believe you. Sounds like someone wanted to ditch Hyrule himself and go on another adventure.” Zelda retorted.

Once more they began hurling insults at each other, disregarding everyone else in the room, notably the Doctor sitting right beside them hoping for a civil conversation. Dr Mario sighed, holding his head in despair. He wasn’t paid nearly enough to deal with this.

Feeling his own headache coming upon him Time took it upon himself to try to subdue his comrade and the princess. At first they didn’t notice he was there, but the world seemed to come to a halt when the child began screaming himself.

“Alright, Legend  _ aside _ from the very small off chance something bad happens while both you and Zelda are gone, why are you so worked up about this? How did you even know Zelda was gone and where to find her anyways?” Time asked, using that stern fatherly tone everyone had grown to fear. Coming out of a 10 year old child, however, did not do wonders for it at all. If anything it made him far less serious and had the circumstances been better they may have laughed at him.

“Well, after leaving Lon Lon Ranch we ended up in my Hyrule and the first thing we were greeting with was a panicked Impa yelling about how Dumbass, over here, went missing with the only message being ‘Going to Smash see you in a bit’. Then she asked if I would-” the rest of the sentence was a mumbled mess no one could make out. Time raised an eyebrow, still losing the effect of a respected leader.

“Could you repeat that clearer please?” he asked.

“...they asked if I would take over for a while because imtechnicallytheprinceofhyrule.” Legend tried his best to keep the rest unclear though it seemed as if the universe was out to get him. 

“You’re the  _ prince of Hyrule?! _ ” Wild yelled, to Legend’s dismay.

“Only technically. We didn’t know until I saved her the first time since I was raised by my Uncle.” Legend replied. “And I  _ never _ want to be the ruler of Hyrule, thank you. I’m already cursed enough.”

Sighing, thoroughly exhausted with Legend’s shit, Time turned to Zelda. “And why did you leave without telling anyone?”

“Because otherwise no one would have let me go and I think we have enough Breath of the Wild representation already, no offense cool Link.” Zelda replied, looking directly at Wild. He gave her a thumbs up before going back to silently harassing Legend.

“Well...I can’t argue with that logic.” Time shrugged, “Sorry Legend.”

Surprisingly enough Legend could agree. It was pretty sound logic. Besides she looked like she was having fun and the only reason why he was so infuriated was because they were trying to peg the kingdom onto him. Now Impa on the other hand, that was another story but he’d let Zelda figure that out on her own.

-

After finally sorting things out and loosely apologizing to each other, Legend decided it was best to go back before camp exploded or something funky with the Lizard happened. He promised to try to convince Impa everything would be alright and nothing would happen to the kingdom. More than anything he needed to convince the Lady that he wasn’t needed to rule the kingdom and there was a greater threat looming than the resurrection number whatever of Ganon.

In the corner of the room the Corrin’s finally spoke up. “Siblings am I right?”

Everyone groaned in disgust. Fucking Corrin.


	3. Dad-ful Encounter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Seliph just wants to find his cousin, a group of strange teenagers who talk to a cat won't stop him from getting there. Though meeting his father just might.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol ew gross look at that Fire Emblem and Persona kinnie on main.

Seliph liked the Order of Heroes well enough. Sure he felt a little out of place there considering there were so many people with so many different costumes when he only had one. And of course there was always the looming threat of the war once he returned home but for the most part the people he once saw as enemies were actually quite nice in this universe.

Ishtar and Julius really didn’t seem to care too much that they were once on opposing sides. Princess Veronica and her army were a much bigger problem right now than their own war. Besides, it’s not like most of their army was even there to encourage them to fight.

If being summoned into one world that wasn’t his own wasn’t already strange enough, one day came a letter for Seliph sealed with a wax stamp of a ball and an asymmetric cross on it. After seeing Roy, Marth, Lucina, Chrom, both Robins, and both Corrins with one of their own he wondered if maybe this wasn’t so strange.

Seliph opened the letter slowly, gazing upon the words on the parchment once, twice and then a third time. He’d been invited to a strange tournament of the ages called Super Smash Brothers as a spirit fighter, whatever that meant. Seeing how excited the ones with letters were reassured him it couldn’t be too horrible. Even Lady Lyn had her own letter and was showing it off to Roy. 

And that was how he found himself in yet another strange world with strange beings from all over. He didn’t really know what to do outside of these battles, it wasn’t as if anyone but the other spirit fighters could really see him. 

Well, that’s what he wanted to believe at least. There were umbra witches, ghost hunters, vampire slayers and all kinds of other strange supernatural beings. There was even a Goddess of Light and two angels for Naga’s sake!

Seliph sighed into his cereal. The life of being a spirit fighter was but a boring reality. Maybe he should have stayed with the Order of Heroes, at least Sharena would have pestered him with questions or Alfonse would ask him to duel. Anything was better than sitting in this room doing nothing.

For a single moment he considered asking Julius if he wanted to spar, though that thought was immediately quelled when he realised that would only end in disaster. Asking your sworn enemy to fight? Absolutely not that was a recipe for disaster and he didn’t quite feel like dying just yet.

There were rumours Leif had found his way into the Smash tournament as well, perhaps he could find Leif and they could do  _ something _ other than sulk around in a room for hours. The biggest problem was being able to find Leif in this massive hotel. How the Hands were able to create such a building was a fantastic form of magic. Perhaps he could ask how their magic worked and he could use it to rebuild the Kingdom....or maybe he was getting a little too excited.

Hope quickly began to drain away from Seliph when he opened the map that had been enclosed in his invitation. A map, for a hotel. He knew from the outside the hotel was massive but he didn’t expect it to be this bad. Perhaps he could get to know the other spirit fighters as well along the way, after all there were a lot of them.

Discarding his bowl of cereal Seliph exited his room and began his search for his cousin.

On the map there were markers for the different franchises of games characters came from. The little sword marker was for the Fire Emblem series and there were, regrettably, a lot of those little sword markers everywhere. And yet there was no indication of who it was. For all he knew the closest of his franchise members could be Naga’s Voice, or those Valentian children.

Standing around wasn’t going to help him though so he started his journey to the closest marker.

Perhaps he should have looked less...intense when he was making his way down the hallways. The not so subtle blonde from those Phantom Thieves was trying his best to keep his voice to a whisper while he gossiped about Seliph in the corner, huddled with those other thieves, as he passed by. The most uncomfortable part about it was probably how the kid, Skull was it, seemed to recognize him despite the fact they weren’t from the same reality. 

Though likely it was something to do with realities clashing in odd ways sometimes, it still set Seliph on edge a bit. He didn’t like that someone was able to recognize him from a glance, knew his whole life story and more, yet Seliph himself knew nothing about them. It wasn’t even like some of these people came from a future Jugdral, it was frustrating.

More than anything he wanted something he knew. He would even settle for someone like Tiki, or Lyn, heck even Julius. He wanted, no, he needed someone to remind him while this wasn’t normal for their situation, this was normal for this Smash Bros tournament. That this was just a more extensive version of the situation with Askr.

While lost in his thoughts he didn’t realise he’d began staring at the Phantom Thieves. The cat hissed and meowed at the other thieves and for a long moment it looked like the other thieves understood it. But that was absurd. Despite coming from a world full of magic, humanoid dragons and so much more there was no way he could ever believe a cat could talk to humans. That was just too much. A cat was a cat.

The blonde girl with the fluffy pigtails also quietly berates the blonde boy, well tries to quietly deal with them. From what he could understand, without their leader Joker the Phantom Thieves were a disaster. And he really, really couldn’t blame them. It was funny really, for people called Phantom Thieves they were really bad at trying to not draw attention to themselves.

The girl with short brown hair broke off from the group and walked towards Seliph. She carried an air of authority with her, seemingly studying Seliph himself. The cat seemed to be mowing in protest in the background, which the girl seemed to ignore completely.

“May we assist you with something?” the girl started. “We couldn’t help but notice you were staring for a rather long time at us.”

Directly to the point, observant, yes she was definitely someone who he would not want to face off against in a fight. 

“I’m sorry, you were all just whispering rather….loudly about me. I don’t think we’ve ever met but your blonde friend seems to recognize me. It was just a little, surprising, that’s all.” he replied. As an afterthought he added, “Have you by chance seen my cousin Leif? He’s got white armour somewhat similar to mine and a red cape. A lot of people from my world have long capes.”

“I can’t say that we have, you’re the first Fire Emblem character Ryuji has noticed so far. And I do apologize for him he’s not the best at controlling his volume.” the girl replied, shooting a glare at the blonde, Ryuji, who squawked in response.

The cat continued to meow and in response Ryuji hung his head in defeat. Yeah, they were truly a strange bunch. He thanked the girl, who he later realized he never learned the name of, and continued on his way, hopefully finding Leif eventually.

Turning the corner he nearly walked right into a boy around the same age as the Phantom Thieves with the rattiest brown hair, wearing a brown trenchcoat spying on the Phantom Thieves and all around trying to be unassuming. It worked on the Thieves but not to anyone around the strange boy. Seliph apologized before quickly continuing on. He didn’t like the look in the boy's eyes and felt like he wouldn’t be as kind as the girl was.    
  
If he saw the Thieves again it may be a good idea to tell them about what he saw though.

In his haste to get away from the crazy one, he ran right into someone, falling quite gracelessly on his ass. Whoever he bumped into held his hand out towards the Lord, asking “Are you alright?”

He gratefully took the man’s hand slowly. His voice washed an odd sense of familiarity over him, though he didn’t know how. He’s dressed in a rather fancy looking white and gold suit, and a long blue cape similar to his own. Unsurprisingly the man’s hair is the same shade of blue. Which meant it was likely he came from his own world. Which country he came from was a mystery though, after all a lot of Lords from the world of Fire Emblem seemed to have blue hair.

The man gave Seliph a once over, wondering what the look in the young man’s eyes was for. Shrugging it off, he introduced himself as “Lord Sigurd Chalphy.”

The strange look in the boy’s eyes turns into one of recognition, then momentary fear. “Father? Is that really you?”

“I...father?” The man sputtered. It would seem as if this incarnation of Sigurd hadn’t actually met his mother just yet. Either way nothing could keep the pang sadness in his heart. No matter what, he would never actually get to know his father, despite what Lucina kept trying to reassure him with. It wasn’t the same as her situation, she knew her father before his death. But Seliph…

His other problem was he didn’t know what to make of the man standing in front of him. Sure Sigurd was his father, but considering the circumstances of how he died, he had no idea what he should say or even do. Warning him of the future was an awful idea, considering how it could lead to disastrous changes in the timeline, but like hell if he wasn’t going to regret never getting to know  _ his _ father again.

Sigurd shifted in place, equally unsure of how to handle the situation. He wasn’t exactly the  _ smartest _ but he could tell there was a lot weighing on the boy’s mind. And especially given the surprise upon meeting him, Seliph never knew him...did he?

“It’s...nice to meet you?” Sigurd tried. Everything part of him was cringing intensely. There wasn’t much else he could really think he could do. After all this was the last possible thing he could ever be prepared for. He supposed he was thankful enough Seliph was in the exact same boat as he was, nodding slowly in response.

“Well...I think I might be off then. I was looking for...” Seliph hesitated. “...someone.”

The boy immediately zoomed off without another word. Sigurd stared into the empty air of where his son used to be unable to feel anything that would be an appropriate reaction. He was just as confused as the next person would be meeting their child from the future. Maybe it was time to meet up with the other fathers of Smash. They could make sense of it, or at least tell him what he should do. Specifically Chrom, Chrom would know EXACTLY what to do.

-

“You mean to tell me you met a young, alive, version of your father and you said nothing? Seliph…” Leif sighed leaving the rest of his sentence up to interpretation. Regardless Seliph could tell he was  _ Disappointed™ _ with the young Lord.

“What do you expect me to say Leif? ‘Hello father could you please maybe not die in the future?’” Seliph asked.

“Anything would be better than what you’ve told me. Perhaps I could talk to him.” Leif considered aloud. 

There was no way Seliph could ever allow that to happen.


	4. Twilight's Lament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The question had been asked, and the answer came. But at what cost?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two chapters within like a day's time? who are you and what have you done with Jeen?
> 
> But I guess this is just as consolation for spending a month on a chapter that included exactly zero (0) Zelda characters. Don't expect this to happen again in the future lmao.

The age old question had finally been asked. How did Wild get into Smash? And why was it not Twilight again. What possible witchcraft could Nintendo have pulled to entice the Hylian Champion to agree on joining Smash Brothers.

The answer was actually quite simple.

The fateful day came far before Wild had actually met Twilight through their interdimensional travels. Back when they were both simply called Link with nothing to distinguish which was which. After all, this was Smash Brothers. The only way they ever would was if they were a different artstyle like Toon or a child like Young Link.

Twilight remembered it like it was yesterday though. He was enjoying himself in the Smash Mansion, readying himself for the latest entry in Smash. He knew it would be coming soon, like everyone else he heard the news. Well, it was actually Snake who gathered intel while sneaking around on Sakurai and the Hands again but that was besides the point. Smash Bros Ultimate was going to come and he was more than ready. Everyone would be returning and there would even be more new characters. There was even the chance of DLC fighters!

But then, then it happened. A Hylian man garbed in blue about the same age as he walked up to him, tapping on his shoulder. Twilight turned around, taking note of the strange looking device by the boy’s hip. 

“Hello, are you an Echo fighter?” Twilight asked.

“Nah you’re being replaced buddy. I’m Link. Now get out of the Mansion, this is my spot now.” the boy replied with such sass Twi could never imagine. He gaped like a fish blinking in indignation. He turned to Mario who happened to be trying to sneak away from the scene.

“Mario, buddy, we’ve known each other for over a decade this has to be a joke right? He can’t be the new Link in Smash he’s not even wearing green or the hat!!” he cried, gesturing to his tunic and stupid pointy windsock hat.

Mario laughed nervously. “Well, Link, the people have spoken. Breath of the Wild is more recent and popular than Twilight Princess. And it’s about time they change which Link model is in Smash. No hard feelings.”

In the background there was a distant chant of “NEW LINK! NEW LINK! NEW LINK!” Mario’s distress was almost palpable as he tried to shush the faraway crowd.

Among them was Roy, Roy who Twi had fought so hard to return to Smash. Chanting for the new guy. This blue anime pretty boy with a tablet for a gimmick. What was so cool about a tablet? He could turn into a wolf for crying out loud he DESERVED to stay in Smash for just a while longer. Besides “Breath of the Wild” Pssst what a stupid name. Twilight Princess would always remain the cooler Zelda game no matter what. There was no way his popularity could ever be replaced. No way in hell.

He frantically dashed around the Mansion asking anyone who would listen if they would miss him. Even Toon betrayed him, sinking deeper into his comic book from one of the Miis sweating profusely. “The new guy gave me food I can’t pass up the opportunity for really good food, Link. Sorry!”

Twilight’s gaze fell onto the new guy again. Burning into the blue brat’s soul. “I’ll  _ never _ forgive you for this. If we EVER meet again. We will fight to the death over which Link reigns supreme…”

As Twilight gathered his things and sulked out the door the brat called “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”

-

Despite the promise he made, Twilight completely forgot about it by the time his new adventure started. There was some kind of mysterious fog clouding their minds making them unable to remember anything they did that had nothing to do with the actual Zelda canon. Mario Kart? Smash Bros? All a forgotten memory until one of them was summoned back into the Smash Mansion once more, except for Legend apparently but he was good enough at acting like nothing ever happened. 

It was better this way. No one needed to know Zelda could kick his ass sideways in 10 seconds flat until the tourney whisked their friends away once again.

The problems with such a thing, was now Twilight was absolutely  _ unbearable _ to Wild. If he even so much as mentioned something about his forgotten memories or the friends he lost in the past Twilight would be at his side like a worried mother goose and start questioning him and acting all around overbearing. It was a nightmare.

Having a support system was great and all, fantastic even, but going for such lengths as to have a comparison to a  _ mother _ was far too much for even Wild to handle. Eventually he got good at passing Twi off to Time or someone else to bother but something kept bothering him.

There was something familiar about the ranchhand. He could never quite place from where but something about him brought back memories of a declaration of battle and pure unbridled jealousy. Whether on his part or the other’s Wild couldn’t truly place quite yet. Still it was frustrating.

“Please stop coddling me. I was crying because I walked into a treasure chest stuck in the ground and stubbed my toe. Far worse could have happened.” Wild deadpanned, trying to push the large wolf away from him.

The wolf whimpered, shuffling closer to him like a worm. Nothing disturbed Wild more than knowing somewhere in there was a Hylian man doing all of this. Sure it was for show because he was in wolf form but there were so, SO, many things wrong with what he was watching. If only his memories would disappear once again.

A bright red door bathed in heavenly blue light appeared before them before Wild could do anything drastic. It swung open revealing a single floating hand beckoning him forward.   
  
And for a moment they were allowed to remember. Replacing Time was the child Link once again, Wind seemed to have had another allergic reaction and his hair regressed back into his head. Wolfie stood more alert than ever growling at the door.   
  
To an outsider they would think the wolf thought they were in danger. But Wild knew. Oh he finally remembered what happened.

“So you’re still mad I replaced you in Smash?” he asked.

The wolf bared its teeth to him. Snarling like the true beast he was instead of the pathetic lap dog he pretended to be.

“ _ Pathetic. _ ” Wild whispered, looking down upon the wolf. A shadow cast a menacing glare, though the wolf didn’t falter.

Warriors, Sky, Four and Hyrule all frantically looked at each other trying to figure out what the fuck was going on. Rightfully so since everything they had ever known about Wild and Wolfie went right out the window, as well as just the fabric of reality they guessed. After all...Time was a child again how were they supposed to tell Malon about this?

Without another word, the Smashers disappeared into the void of the door. As it swung shut they promptly forgot everything that had just occurred once again.

“Where did Wild, Time and Wind go?” Hyrule asked.   
  
“I don’t know but I have the strangest feeling they always have fun without us…” Warriors replied.

  
Sky smiled into the camera, knowing you’re looking back at him. The distant screams of frustration rang through his ears as he thought about karts and blue shells. They really were the ones who got to have  _ fun _ weren’t they?


	5. Last Surprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The last person he expects to see makes a surprise appearance.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for Persona 5 Royal spoilers, and the events of 11/20.
> 
> And thus the Persona arc begins, be prepared to see a lot of them lol.

By all accounts, Goro Akechi should be dead. He knew he died to his cognitive self in Shido’s Palace and still he found himself alive and well, turning himself into the police for his involvement of the mental shutdowns and murders of Wakaba Ishikki and Kunikazu Okumura. Only to then be released by the police, dropping all charges on him.

Nothing was right about that at all. To make matters even worse, he’d made a deal with the Phantom Thieves to stop that damn guidance counselor from fabricating a reality where he would once again be controlled by someone else.

Or at least that’s what they were  _ trying _ to do. The next thing he knew, they’d been whisked off to another world where Joker was invited for a Smash Tournament. It was a waste of time, given the time frame Maruki had given them. Still, the time that passed in this realm seemed different than at home so he supposed he could deal with the amount of time that was wasted there.

There were other things bothering him though. As much as he hated to admit it, he felt himself...missing...the company of the other Phantom Thieves. Despite the fact they were all there, they acted as if Akechi wasn’t even present. Or if he even so much as made it obvious he was in their presence they would treat him like he was the worst person alive.

And that was understandable, given what he had done to them  _ and  _ for attempting to kill their leader. He was an awful person and he could accept that. The part he couldn’t place any sense on was the fact they acted like the deal had never even happened. It was hard enough approaching them without the cat hissing and alerting the others he was there, so asking them outright was far out of the question.

Meeting with Joker proved to be an even harder task.

Unlike himself and the other Thieves, Joker was an actual fighter not a spirit. So generally he was separated from the others. Sure he snuck in to see his friends very often, but given how hard it was to even ask Nijima a question, doing the same for Joker was completely out of the picture.

It was tough, and he wanted answers. The Detective Prince in him, even if that had been just a mask to gain their Leader’s trust, yearned for it.

-

When Morgana found Joker he was going to scream. As fast as his little cat legs could carry him, he sprinted away from the pink menace. Why was this damn Mansion so huge? Even Kamoshida’s Palace was easier to navigate than this.

“Poyo!!” Kirby called after, blissfully unaware of Morgana’s distress. After all, who wouldn’t want to pet the cute kitty?

Many heads were turned as they watched Kirby chasing down Joker’s cat. The poor thing was meowing like crazy at this point, frantically darting his head around for any sign of that familiar frizzy black hair.

“Should we help him?” Marth asked.

Shulk held up three fingers, slowly counting them down, then pointed towards the door. Not a moment later Joker walked through, even more speechless than before at what he was witnessing.

Morgana sped towards Joker, using him as a cat pole before diving into his bag. Kirby slowed to a stop before the Phantom Thief, wondering what happened to his new friend.

“Did you want to pet Morgana?” Joker asked. Followed by immediate frantic meowing.

“Poyo!” Kirby excitedly replied. At this point Joker could understand this was Kirby for ‘of course’.

“Kirby, Morgana isn’t a regular kitty.” Joker explained. “And between you and me, he pretends like he isn’t at all.”

Morgana meowed loudly in protests that were left completely ignored. “You don’t want to hurt Morgana’s feelings right Kirby?” Once again, Morgana meowed in protest.

The pink puff’s lip wobbled. He just wanted a kitty friend, Incineroar was a nice kitty but a  _ BIG _ kitty. This one was what he thought was a normal kitty. But apparently it wasn’t.

“I don’t think anyone is fighting in the Monastery right now. Wanna come see those kitties with us?” Red asked.

Kirby perked up nearly immediately. Trailing behind the Pokemon trainer and Sir Meta Knight he disappeared off the Garry Mach to make some new kitty friends.

It was also then Joker realized people were still staring at him. It wasn’t the kind of stares he received right after transferring to Shujin but he digressed, he didn’t like this kind of attention. There were too many people staring at him at once and for what? Morgana?

“You’re a teenager?!” Captain Falcon shouted, breaking the silence.

Perhaps not then.

Morgana’s head wiggled out of his bag once more. “Hey, come on we have some important intel for you. Hurry up and let’s go!”

-

Akira didn’t really know what he was expecting to hear, however Morgana’s declaration of Akechi being in Smash as a spirit was probably the last thing he expected to hear. Apparently they’d been tipped off from a Fire Emblem character of all people and needless to say no one was that pleased about it.

Mostly for the sake of everyone else since…Well never mind. No use dwelling on that in this place. 

“Akira...are you alright?” Makoto asked. “You’ve been staring at the wall for an awfully long time.”

“He lived.” It was a statement, not a question like Makoto thought. Almost as if he expected it. She supposed if there was anyone besides Akira who could cheat death it would be Akechi. 

“Well man what are we goin’ to do?” Ryuji cut in, bouncing his leg and tapping his fingers against the other. Ann looked close to elbowing him beneath her own worried look. 

The others looked at Akira expectantly. On one hand, if Akechi was leaving them alone there was no problem at all. On the other hand...it was Akechi. The man that did want to kill every single one of them at some point.

Though, after New Years...New Years? He shook his head. He was getting confused again, which was nothing but an all too familiar feeling. He tried to push the feeling off, to not have to think about it while trying to reassure his fellow Thieves. 

“If we have characters like Samus and Ridley safely in the same room as each other it should be fine. I’m not saying don’t be careful, but don’t overreact either.” he replied, almost convincing even himself. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to trust the judgement of the Hands, or Smash in general, especially with everything he had witnessed thus far between the different rivals and such however, there was always that reminder Akechi didn’t hesitate to shoot him in the head (even if it was a cognition), and felt nothing.

“It’s getting late. You should go to bed, Joker.” Morgana cut in. On the contrary it wasn’t late at all, and he wasn’t particularly tired, but he could see the look in the cat’s eyes held a completely different meaning. It was easy to forget Morgana knew how Akira really felt about Akechi a lot better than the other Thieves did. Ryuji may have known Akira since the beginning but Moragana  _ knew _ Akira after spending practically every day with him for the past year.

It was easy to play off as a classic Morgana move. The  _ totally not a cat _ hopped into Akira’s school bag, making himself comfortable before ducking inside before anyone else could notice. Despite how often Akira smuggled him into his room and how often the cat seemed to “break in” the Smash Mansion no one ever said a thing about it. It was kind of like Shujin and basically everywhere else Akira went that never questioned why he was carrying a cat in his bag. It was...nice he supposed.

Not that he  _ needed _ Morgana to even be able to sleep. No. Never.

Akira rounded the corner, only half listening to Morgana’s rambles about the other Smashers he could potentially be fighting soon. A flash of tan whisked by before a flurry of papers dropped to the floor. Akira immediately bent down to help whoever pick the papers up. He could feel Morgana wriggling in his bag, quietly protesting that they should leave them alone but Akira couldn’t help it. He liked helping people, besides it was partially his fault anyways.

“Thank you, my apologies for getting in...your…” the far too familiar voice trailed off. Finally looking past the ungloved hand, Akira looked up to find the same man he remembered. The Detective Prince, Akechi.

The silence between them was deafening. Only the faint buzz of the air conditioner echoed through the otherwise empty hall. His bag rustled once more and Morgana’s head popped out of the front. The detective’s eyes locked with the cat’s for a brief moment before returning his gaze to Akira.

Heavier the air became the more the three of them remained in unmoving silence. No one made the move to be the first one to speak. What were they supposed to say? Shouldn’t you be dead? Sorry for trying to kill you? How are you even here?

_ What happened to Maruki and Sumire? _

Seconds continued to pass into minutes, and eventually he can’t be sure how much time had passed. He desperately wants to do something, to say anything to get this interaction over with but his arms won’t move. Nothing would cooperate. It’s a little pathetic really, the Leader of the Phantom Thieves freezing at the sight of an enemy? Ally? He can’t tell anymore.

“I don’t suppose you plan on keeping those?” Akechi asked, finally breaking their cycle of silence.

His already outstretched hand moved ever so much closer to Joker and instantly Morgana’s back arched. He hissed out something to the false detective but he couldn’t process it. To his, and Morgana’s surprise, Akechi backed off. There’s a hint of confusion on his otherwise composed face, as if...expecting something out of Akira.

He all but shoved the papers into Akechi’s hands scrambling to stand up. Wordlessly he attempted to make a hasty escape but Akechi’s voice stopped him once again.

“Are we not from the same reality?” Akechi asked. “Your friends deny knowing a Doctor Maruki however I’m more than certain the only reason I am even still alive is because of him. If not them then what about you? Do  _ you _ remember the deal we made?”

“Joker don’t listen to his nonsense. He keeps talking about some guidance counselor who’s also a Persona user but no one like that ever existed.” Morgana warned.

Gathering up whatever will he still had to speak, Akira turned back to Akechi. HIs voice wavered as he replied, much quieter than usual, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Akira watched as the little remaining hope in Akechi’s eyes faded away. Not a moment later Akechi put on a mask of indifference. “I see, I’ll leave you be then. I have no business with you.”

The false detective turned heel and continued on as if nothing had ever happened. Like their interaction had been nothing but a dream. With the weight of dealing with Akechi finally off his chest, Akira felt like he could breathe again. 

Something cold poked his neck, trying to get his attention. “Come on, let’s go back. You’ve had enough for excitement for the day.” Morgana said, before slinking back into Akira’s bag. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t feeling completely exhausted after that encounter. Without further protest he silently returned to his room in the Smash Mansion.

Akira sat his bag onto the small desk where Morgana could easily climb out of the bag. The not-cat watched his Leader go through the motions of his night almost as if he was on autopilot. Quietly sighing to himself, Morgana was reminded of the same thing Captain Falcon had so gracefully shouted earlier. Despite everything they’d done Joker was still a highschooler, and after everything that happened between Akechi and...November 20th Morgana wanted to do whatever his current form could to help. But he knew it never would be enough. He didn’t know what exactly happened while Joker was being interrogated but whatever happened had a lasting effect on him, despite the protests and reassurances at night.

But Morgana knew. Morgana sat back and allowed Akira to lie to his friends, his fellow Phantom Thieves whenever he mentioned everything was alright. He supposed it was for the best they didn’t know about how their Leader would wake up screaming for someone to stop, or how when he thought Morgana wasn’t watching he would cry himself to sleep, or even calling out for his senpais even Morgana didn’t know. 

When Morgana regained his human form, he was going to help take down the rest of the bastards that did this to his leader. For now, all he could do was curl up beside the teen, and purr quietly when Akira would scratch behind his ears. And he would do his best as a Phantom Thief, for Akira’s sake.

-

Something wasn’t right about his interaction with Joker and Akechi couldn’t quite place where. Fear may have been understandable, when he appeared in LeBlanc after the beginning of the reality change Joker was just as surprised, but there was more to it this time. He  _ knew _ it. Akechi may have been able to accept it if this Joker truly was from a different world than his own, but that couldn’t be it.

There was a single moment of hesitation before Joker replied he never heard of Dr Maruki. “Just what are you hiding, Joker? And why don’t you want your friends to know…” 


	6. Life Will Change

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wind's assigned a spirit fighter. Needless to say, the one they chose leaves him less than pleased.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still spoilers for P5 Royal so proceed with caution *dabs*

Barely half awake, Wind found himself in the Hands’ office, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, wondering what he possibly could have done to earn such a fate as the one he was about to thrust into. Master Hand floated out for a moment, leaving Wind to consider whether he should just fall back asleep. He was tired, very tired, too tired for this. Between the screams of the spirits and just trying to find some time to fit in training while also separating Wild from tiny Time took way too much energy out of him.

When Master Hand returned someone followed behind. He looked somewhat familiar but Wind was too tired to guess from where, whoever it was the single glove and long shaggy hair didn’t give off very trustworthy vibes.

“We’re assigning you a spirit fighter for now. This is Goro Akechi from the Persona series. You’re likely not going to get along but you’re stuck with him anyways. Now off with you two, Crazy and I have a Dance Dance Revolution battle to resume.” Master Hand declared, boothing the both of them out of the office.

If he’d been drinking water, Wind would have done a spit take. The Hands and Akechi should be thankful. Now if he were to say that didn’t wake him up would have been a horrible lie. The appearance had never been enough for Wind to recognize however the name was more than enough. It was the detective who tried to kill Joker. 

Now he understood why the Hands instinctively knew he wouldn’t get along with his spirit partner. It was a literal cold-blooded murderer. Attempted or otherwise when it came to Joker’s life.

This one was different than the one he saw around Joker occasionally. Rather than screaming or flailing around erratically this one stood poised and calculating. He didn’t know why this Akechi wore a single black glove but he wasn’t in a good enough mood to ask. 

“You’re probably wondering why I’m not like the other one aren’t you?” he asked.

Wind grimaced at how obvious he must have been for Akechi to see that so easily. Then again he didn’t care about what the spirit of an asshole thought of him. He’d pull whatever disgusted face at him no matter what and there was not much the spirit could do about it.

“I played detective long enough to figure out things about you very easily. You can see the spirits of the dead, different to us ‘spirit fighters’. I can see you’re not a fan of me. And that’s understandable after what I tried to do to Kurusu-san.” Akechi continued on, too casual for Wind’s tastes. “Shall I try to explain for you then?”

“Whatever it is, I don’t want to hear it. Just, follow me and don’t try to kill anyone else.” Wind replied.

“You think too highly of us spirit fighters if you think that’s even possible.” Akechi replied, a hint of jealousy tinged his words. It didn’t take a genius to know this was in some way related to Joker being an actual fighter. That must have still been a sore subject for the detective. Noted.

For the most part, he returned to the Mansion in silence. He could already hear tiny Time’s nagging over why he got an assigned spirit fighter, like the little brat he liked to pretend he was. As much as he appreciated the hero, tiny Time was insufferable.

Fuck he was so tired.

“Okay fine, I give up. What is it you even do?” Wind asked.

“Item gravitation.” Akechi replied. Great, that was utterly  _ useless _ to him. Everything he could ever need in a Smash fight was already on his person, except for maybe a Smash ball but given the fact they added Smash meters it didn’t really matter anymore did it? 

Well there was no use dwelling upon it anymore. He was specifically assigned Akechi by the Hands and something told Wind there was an underlying meaning that he couldn’t quite figure out yet. What business did  _ Wind _ in particular have with such a man as Goro Akechi?

“You know, you  _ can _ express how you truly feel. Being unwanted isn’t something I’m foreign to.” Akechi commented.

As much as he hated to admit it, Akechi was a pretty damn good detective he  _ guessed. _ If anything he was incredibly good at making deductions about people. Though, the comment about being unwanted surprised him more than anything. From Akira’s description of Akechi the public  _ loved _ him. To the point they were unaware he was the true culprit behind the mental shutdowns. Which made sense considering no one but the Phantom Thieves would really have been able to see his true nature, with the Metaverse and all, and even when popularity for Akechi was down there were still a lot of people who believed every word he said about the Thieves. 

“What are you talking about?” he found himself asking, cursing himself internally for getting invested in the story of Goro fucking Akechi.

“My father was...a deplorable man. I don’t wish to go into the details, however, he wanted nothing to do with my mother and I, leading to her death and was ultimately the reason why I led the life that I did. Most of the people I ended up killing were actually orders from my father years later.” Akechi explained. “I don’t think he ever figured out who I really was…”

Somehow Wind found himself back in the boots he filled months ago, when the spirits of his companions started coming to him for reasons he didn’t exactly remember too well anymore. At this point it was as if he was a ghost therapist or something, despite the fact he had no idea how to really respond to most of them anymore. Or they were the ones consoling him over whatever breakdown he was having. Still, there was nothing more disgraceful in his eyes than sympathizing with Akechi, an ironic statement considering he literally spent hours of his life hanging around Ganondorf in Smash.

To Akechi, though, Toon Link’s silence spoke volumes. He could see the kid’s thoughts were going a mile a minute trying to rationalize how to go about their predicament. And he would allow him that luxury. Besides he had his own thoughts to mull over. What exactly were the Hands motive behind pairing him with the boy? Moreover, why would the Hands make such a decision before deciding to have a Dance Dance Revolution Battle?

Coming from Crazy Hand that may have been something he could ignore, but from Master Hand the arguable more responsible of the two Hands Akechi couldn’t just let the thought pass. There was far more to it than he or Toon Link could ever imagine. On top of the situation with the Phantom Thieves and Joker there may be a little too much for him to consider at the moment.

“I know this may be too soon for you to consider but perhaps we could strike a deal.” Akechi suggested. He didn’t expect anything to come out of it, especially with the distrustful glare Toon Link almost immediately sent him. Sympathizing didn’t exactly mean trusting him.

“Listen, Akechi, I may be a ‘kid’ to you but I’m not stupid. Why would I  _ ever _ make a deal with someone like you?” the boy bit out.

“Implying Joker is a child and stupid aside, because we may have more similar goals than you may think. If anything please just do this for Yoshizawa-san’s sake.” 

Wind was about five seconds away from ripping his hair out again. Why was he the only one who had to deal with bullshit like this? At what point did he become the most logical of the current Smash Links? “Would you STOP throwing names out there like I know what you’re talking about? It isn’t helping your case at all. If  _ anything _ I’m even less inclined to talk to Joker than before.”

When Akechi didn’t reply he almost took that as a victory.  _ Almost. _ The bastard crossed his arms gesturing at Wind to turn around and look, only to reveal Ganondorf standing there rather awkwardly. How perfectly timed.

“Am I interrupting something?” Ganondorf asked.

“Nothing too  _ important _ . I’ll take my leave for now.” Akechi replied. In a puff of smoke, that Wind would much later learn was a Goho-M, Akechi disappeared, likely back to the rest of the spirit fighters. Which begged the question, why was he following Wind in the first place.If it was to get Wind to bring him to Joker then why couldn’t Akechi just go to Joker himself?

Whatever. He just wanted to take a nap.

-

Despite the circumstances, that honestly went better than Akechi expected. Then again, when complete silence was your expectation anything was better. Perhaps he should have started it off with the fact he was a cognition made by Joker’s wishes, or maybe the fact that both he and the actual Akechi didn’t want him or the other Phantom Thieves dead before Shido’s cognitive Akechi killed the real Akechi.

Well it was water under the bridge now. The next time he tried to talk to Toon Link he may be able to bring it up. After all, there was no doubt in his mind Ganondorf was currently trying to appeal to the boy. At no point was Akechi trying to make friends with the Link, of course not what was the point in that when he would be sent home once the tournament was over. But the  _ now _ and his itch to figure out the truth about Joker, and the need to ease his own mind about what was going on in their world, with Sumire was consuming him. It wasn’t that he particularly cared about Joker, he just HATED the thought of people’s fates being decided for them. Regardless of where his current origins came from, he would decide his own truth.

There was Joker’s cat, pacing back and forth muttering to himself. Strange, usually the cat hung around Joker during the day, since no one ever noticed the fact Joker would constantly smuggle the cat in. To be honest, there weren’t a lot of moments he noticed Joker without Morgana, even in Smash. If anything, he expected the Phantom Thieves themselves were Joker’s spirit fighters.

“What are you doing here?” Akechi asked, approaching the cat.

Morgana hissing, dropping low to the ground, ready to pounce at any given moment. Akechi raised his hands hoping Morgana would at least listen to him, stepping back.

“What do you want?” Morgana asked.

“I’ve dealt with enough people questioning my motives today, please don’t make me repeat myself.” Akechi deadpanned. 

Morgana’s eyes scanned over Akechi. Searching for anything that could possibly betray his words, like last time with the pancakes incident. The irritation that quickly grew, souring Akechi’s entire appearance seemed genuine enough for Morgana to believe he honestly wanted to know why Moragana was here instead of with the other Thieves or Joker himself.

“They kicked me out. No pets, they said.” Morgana reluctantly replied.

“I hate to admit this but I would hardly call you a pet. A cat, maybe, but you can summon your own Persona and they are definitely more than aware you can speak human language.” Akechi pondered. “Besides, they allowed you in the Mansion this long, why would they decide to kick you out now? Something doesn’t seem right.”

“You’re telling me…” Morgana had to agree. “There’s something different about you. I never really noticed until now but you’re not the same Akechi as I remember.”   
  


Akechi was more than relieved that someone finally got it. He promised to explain everything later, meaning when the other Phantom Thieves and Toon Link would get off their high horse and actually listen to him, or at the very least when he could get Morgana back to Joker.

Hopefully that was enough to satiate Morgana for now.

-

Ganondorf sighed, pinching his nose. He’d gotten nowhere in trying to convince Wind he was being a hypocrite. If the boy could forgive  _ him _ for his own deeds against Hyrule, his own family, his friends and such then he could at least try to help Akechi. Maybe forgive was a bit too strong of a word but Wind was more than willing to defend Ganondorf’s deeds against the world to his other Links.

What a hassle.

There was obviously no point trying to reason with him now, since he was so dead set on ignoring Akechi. So for the time being, he left Wind alone.

However, that didn’t mean there wasn’t someone else he could recruit. The princess of the downfall timeline checked Ganondorf up and down, raising her eyebrow at him the moment she opened her door.

“You want  _ me _ to help you convince the little guy to make a deal some murder detective from another world?” 

“Considering how desperate the ‘murder detective’ sounds. Yes. All I’m asking of you is to help him see that by refusing to accept that guy while going around and calling me ‘dad’ makes no sense at all.” 

Taking in Ganondorf’s tired expression and a moment to reflect upon his statement, Zelda caved. “Fine, I guess you do make a valid point. But you owe me for this.”

That was enough to appease Ganondorf. He would be found later sitting at the villains anonymous gathering sobbing into a bowl of curry. How Bowser was able to survive with 8 children he would never be able to fathom.

The large turtle silently pat Ganondorf on the back as he continued to sob into his curry. Such was the life of a retired villain.

-

In the end, the encounter with Zelda didn’t actually end up the way Ganondorf thought. He completely forgot this was the Zelda who was 100% willing to kick her own brother’s ass just so she wouldn’t have to go back to her kingdom, and honestly just in general. She really liked to fight that poor fashion disaster. Rather than using her words and logic to get through to the Link, Ganondorf was woken up by her screaming at him from across the room and launched into a rather glorious battle.

But that wasn’t the point. The shrill scream and ensuing chase throughout the floor was enough to drive most people out of their rooms, watching in silent awe and horror. Young Link, or tiny Time as Wind liked to call him, left for a few minutes, and for a moment Ganondorf had hoped this would end. No, the tiny bastard returned with popcorn in hand and had the GALL to offer some to him.

Between Wild and tiny Time they got through the entire bag of popcorn by the time Wind finally caved against Zelda’s will. He didn’t  _ want _ to, but she was so  _ dead set _ on making him see the irony of everything he’d said that he reluctantly agreed to actually hear Akechi out, even if the sentiment was insincere.

The thought of finding him in the sea of spirit fighters disgusted him. Not only from the spirit standpoint but, having to admit he was being unreasonable to the prick. He could already hear the detective’s ego inflating already.

Wind grabbed tiny Time by the collar of his tunic, dragging him along with him. The resentment radiating off Time was mutual. The only reason he was even bringing the child appearing hero was so someone could at least hold him back from going absolutely feral on Akechi if things went too far South. Even Time himself finally shed his child-like attitude when he saw the resentment in Wind’s eyes.

“Do you really have to do this?” Tiny Time asked.

“Since I’ve been nice to Ganondad, yeah. I want this as much as you do though.” Wind sighed.

They both stood in front of the hotel doors, unmoving. Neither really wanted to make the first move, which seemed understandable more on Time’s end. This wasn’t his battle to face, he was just volunteered moral support that he never signed up for.

“Well…?” Time tired to prompt him.

“I don’t want to do this…” Wind pouted.

Thankfully for Time, and everyone else, fate would decide to move things forward for them. The hotel doors swung open, and Akechi, bag in hand, stepped out before pausing when he laid eyes on the two Links.

  
“Well, isn’t this a surprise.”   
  
Internally screaming, Wind steeled himself for what would come next.


	7. Talk and a Preparation for Battle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wind finally comes to an understanding with Akechi. Meanwhile Joker's trying to deal with everything and its not going over well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol see you in two months

“Shall we get this over with now? I have other things planned today.” Akechi asked, in a rather bored tone. It was the last thing Wind expected out of him, not that he was really complaining. The less egotistical bullshit he had to deal with the better.

Clenching his fists and trying to look Akechi in the eyes he deadpanned, “I’m willing to listen to you now and I’m...sorry...for being a brat.”

Akechi pressed his lips into a thin line. The rather lackluster apology was more than enough for him, even getting one was more of a surprise than anything. Besides, he just needed to be sure he could bring the cat into the Mansion whenever he had to be with the boy. It was likely easier said than done because these were floating sentient hands, not the cognitions or Shadows from the Metaverse.

“I see. I’ll accept your apology. Now, about our deal. Circumstances have changed a bit and I require you to follow me somewhere.” Akechi replied.

Instinctively, Wind looked to tiny Time for reassurance. Sure he was willing to listen to Akechi, but going with him somewhere the detective was being vague about, he wasn’t so sure about that. Tiny Time shrugged, there wasn’t much he could say about it. To him Akechi seemed almost desperate to get this deal going. In a borderline obsessive way even he couldn’t describe. And honestly, he couldn’t sense anything particularly malicious about the man’s intentions.

“If this is going to work you’re going to have to trust him. I’m going to head back to the Mansion. If  _ too _ much time passes Wild and I will come look for you but I dunno he seems fine.” tiny Time replied. With that the child disappeared off in the direction he and Wind came from, leaving the technically ‘older’ hero awestruck. In a way he knew he was right though.

“Where are we going?” Wind asked.   
  
“Well to make things far easier for all three of us, we’re going to Mementos.” Akechi replied.

First of all, all  _ three _ of them? Was he referring to Joker or..? Secondly, the creepy red and black place that no one ever seemed to want to go to. A strange choice but he knew it was Joker’s home stage, so he had to follow.

As Akechi rifled through his pockets, looking for his phone, Wind noticed the bag on his shoulder moving a lot more than it should have. Seconds later a familiar black fluffy head popped out of the bag, meowing out a protest. Akechi thoroughly ignored the cat, fiddling with his phone some more.

A female robotic voice played out of the phone, and the world began to warp around him. It wasn’t the first time he ever switched realities, or worlds, whatever you wanted to call it but it didn’t stop him from feeling queasy after a shift no matter how used to it he should have been. 

Sure enough he was in the strange red and black world. The ghostly black trains whizzed by behind their small platform in the sky. Finally seeing it for himself he had to agree, this stage seemed like the worst, why would anyone want to come here?

“Well then, shall we begin?” Akechi asked.

“What a great way to put it. You sound like you’re about to kill him.” a childish voice, alarmingly similar to Sothis’s chastised the detective. 

Wind looked around, trying to find the source of the voice. Was it a resident of Mementos that he hadn’t noticed yet? Was...was Sothis here? His search would quickly find itself looking towards the ground where Akechi had left his bag. Stepping out of it came a strange cat-like figure decked out in a large tool belt, yellow scarf, and wielding a sword.

“Did....did the cat just talk?” Wind asked.

“I’m NOT a cat.” the not-cat insisted. “I’m another one of the Phantom Thieves. You may call me Morgana.”

“O-okay...Morgana…” Wind wanted to ask why he looked like a cat, but being a person who came from a world where there were humanoid bird people who evolved from bi-pedal fish people he decided it was better to just not question it. If the Rito and the Zora could exist then talking bug-eyed cat creatures could too. “Is this part of the deal?” he asked instead.

“Partially. For unseen circumstances the Hands decided they weren’t going to allow Joker to bring Morgana into the Mansion anymore. It was easier for you to understand why if i just brought you here to see for yourself rather than play another game of 20 Questions.” Akechi replied. “I’ll require your assistance to return him to Joker.”

What good would that do? Wouldn’t the Hands just notice Joker had a cat again and send him back  _ again? _ Something wasn’t adding up. Sure the whole deal wasn’t on the table yet but something about Akechi’s statement about returning Morgana to Joker, despite the fact he would just be kicked out again, didn’t seem to sit right. The stranger part was it wasn’t even in a bad way either.

There were also all the names Akechi kept throwing out to convince Wind to help him. Names he guessed he could try to fact check with Morgana later but that was a little besides the point.

“Before I agree to that, because it seems like a really bad idea considering the Hands, what about the rest of the deal?” Wind asked.

Strangely enough, Akechi seemed hesitant to reply. As if the presence of Morgana would completely throw off his plan. There was definitely a different type of weird to Akechi than the Akechi that clung to Joker’s presence. It was hard to put into words, but they were definitely far different to each other than he initially saw.

“Joker seems to be...keeping something about his origins from the rest of his team. I noticed something off about it when we encountered each other the other night by complete chance. Confronting him myself would be ideal however, as we both know, that would lead to disaster. So, I need someone else who doesn’t know all the details of his time as a Phantom Thief to confront him for me. Normally I wouldn’t particularly care, however there’s someone he, at the very least, cares about who’s safety I’m currently concerned for.” Akechi explained.

“Is this the Yoshizawa person you were talking about before?” Wind asked.

“Precisely. If my assumptions about him are correct, then he is turning a blind eye to Sumire-san’s suffering for the sake of the copies of the people who reside here. You can understand why I won’t allow that?”

On one hand, yes he did. Living a false reality just because he was in another world was terrible, even Wind wondered if his sister and Grandma were safe back at home both when he was in Smash and in the other versions of Hyrule. But, there was always the chance Joker wasn’t lying? Akechi’s intentions were much clearer now but it begged the question how he could be both alive and dead at the same time. Sure, there was resurrection and CLEARLY the case of other timelines, but...if  _ that _ Joker had an Akechi…“What does that make you?”

“I’m a being born out of Joker’s desire to save me. Maruki planned this out very carefully, knowing my presence would be enough to convince him to at least go to his palace. Though Morgana refuses to believe it, I’m merely a cognition, just like himself.” Akechi replied.

“Cognitions are forms given to people’s perceptions of reality. If they believe in that perception hard enough it becomes real. Hence why you’re able to hear me speak here in the Metaverse. Since...since this is what Joker’s perception of Akechi is, this is the form he took when it became a part of this Maruki’s reality…” Morgana explained after seeing the lost look on Wind’s face. Despite having told this explanation hundreds of times, this was the one that hurt Morgana the most. He didn’t want to believe the Joker he was staying with belonged somewhere else.. He didn’t want to believe Joker cared enough about Akechi for this to happen.

But in the end, he was also kidding himself. Despite all the terrible deeds of Akechi, what they witnessed in Shido’s Palace made all of them wish he didn’t have to die. It was a sacrifice the real Akechi was willing to make after seeing what his father truly thought of him, and...he guessed that’s why despite being so different from the real Akechi, Joker’s cognitive Akechi was also so familiar. It’s why they changed Shido’s heart...but at what cost?

“So...what I’m understanding is that...you’re not...technically real?” Wind asked after a long moment of silence.

“It’s why I want our job to be finished as quickly as possible. I don’t wish to be Maruki’s pawn for longer than necessary. I tried getting that through to Joker, however…” Akechi gestured to himself as enough of an explanation.

“I guess I understand you better now? In a really convoluted way you do care about Joker, or at the very least Sumire. I still don’t want to trust you but I’m willing to help you if it’s going to help Sumire.” Wind admitted. He hated that helping Akechi also implied it would kill him again. Even if Akechi himself was a murderer, and it was what he desired. He shuddered at the thought, pushing it away so he wouldn’t feel as gross. This must have been how Joker felt. He could understand that better as well.

Think of it as helping out Morgana instead. At the base surface level, helping return Joker’s cat would relieve him over the whole situation, despite Morgana not actually being a cat he guessed.

Still...why were they both so desperate to return Morgana to Joker? 

-

All the meanwhile, Akira Kurusu knew what he was doing was incredibly selfish. He knew refusing to acknowledge Maruki’s reality, and Akechi was terrible. That if he didn’t decide to act soon, or when he returned home, that she would completely lose herself and become Kasumi again. 

But at the same time, he couldn’t bring himself to shatter the realities of his friends. He couldn’t bring himself to resurface all their past trauma again. He couldn’t bear to separate Ann from Shiho, or remind Futaba, Haru and Makoto about their families, to be the reason Yusuke remembered Madarame let his mother die to steal her art, and to crush Ryuji’s dreams of being a track star for the second time. There was no way he could do that to him, or any of them.

They were all happy with the reality they were living, even if it was false. Even if he and Akechi were the only ones that knew the truth. And Akechi...he  _ hated  _ Akechi. Akechi was the reason he would likely never be able to sleep on his own again. But he couldn’t bring himself to want him dead. Akechi could have killed him many times, only one of them did he actually attempt to. But even so, Akira couldn’t wish him dead a second time. He was Shido’s pawn, did he really have much of a choice?

Actually yes but that wasn’t the point. Part of the reason Akechi was the way he turned out was also from Yaldabaoth’s meddling. If Akechi never gained the power of the Wild Card things would have ended up different.

And he supposed that’s why he latched onto this reality he was living. One where in his home, his friends were safe and happy, all the while being surrounded by them in Smash. It wasn’t right, since none of them were technically ‘his’ Phantom Thieves but it was a reality he was living regardless.

_ Are you forsaking Yoshizawa for Crow, Trickster? _ Arsene’s voice rang through his head.

Akira stumbled back into his dresser, communicator cluttering to the floor as it shook. He knew he was on edge about the whole  _ Akechi _ thing, among other reasons but it was a little ridiculous for him to jump at the sound of his own Personas voice.

Maybe it was because it had been a while since the last time he actually had a chat with Arsene. The demonic gentleman thief was elusive as ever outside of battle despite his promise to always be there for him. But then again, where he came from Arsene wasn’t exactly Arsene anymore so did it really count?

“N-no. I would never.” Akira replied. He knew he’d be returning home sometime. After all Smash didn’t last forever, as much as he would like to. It was a matter of needing more time to think. He wanted to eventually save Sumire.

_ If that’s true, then why do you hesitate? _

The persona’s voice fell silent once more when there was a knock at Akira’s door. Standing behind it were a peppy looking Roy, the two Pits and weirdly enough Little Mac. Roy grinned at the Phantom Thief widely, almost reminiscent of a certain bottle blonde he knew.

“Hey Joker, we’re going to the training grounds, wanna come with us?” he asked.

The immediate response from Akira would later make him cringe, “Why me?”

The smile on Roy’s face wavered for the briefest of moments, before coming back even stronger than before. “Because why not? We’re the cool teens crew and Little Mac is like our semi-reliable adult figure who’ll make sure we don’t accidentally burn the place down!!”

Considering Little Mac was the same age as Joker and his distressed expression, Akira was doubtful of this claim but joined them anyways. The more he could forget his troubles the better.

The energetic angel immediately launched into a long winded tale Akira wished he had the energy to pay attention to. The other Pit beside them tried in vain to get the first one to stop speaking, though nothing seemed to deter the angel. The boy had that air of such naive innocence Akira almost felt bad the immediate thought he had upon meeting Pit months ago was similar to the shadows he fought in the Metaverse. The other one, maybe not so much but Dark Pit liked brooding in his room more than anything else so what was Akira to judge what he was like. After all, Akira also liked brooding in his room too.

The leader of the Phantom Thieves almost walked straight into Roy’s back when the Lord suddenly stopped. Looking over his head, he could see one of the Links, the short one with a giant head, standing there looking more annoyed than any kid he’s seen in Smash, with the exception of possibly Dark Pit. In his hands he was holding a large black duffel bag that was moving far more than any duffel bag should.

“Hey Toonie, wanna come train with us?” Roy asked, ignoring the mood the kid was currently in.

The kid looked past Roy right into Akira’s eyes. Despite how badly he wanted to look away Akira found that he couldn’t. There was something about the kid that was just  _ strange _ like he was far  _ wiser _ than his years, and more  _ powerful _ than he let on. And he could believe that, after all this was a kid that could kill an evil wizard or something, with a single sword. Or something like that, he should listen to Futaba about the other Smashers more often.

“Yeah fine,” the kid replied looking back towards Roy. “But I want to fight him.”

“Really? Joker? I thought we were going to be sword buddies again. But fair enough. Maybe you can test out that new Spirit you got earlier.” Roy replied, looking towards where Toonie was pointing. The bag in Toon Link’s hands shook menacingly once more. Akira could faintly make out quiet complaints coming from within and decided to take a page out of Narukami-senpai’s book and just leave it be.

More important matters needed to be attended to, like why the hell Toon Link wanted to fight him with a vengeance. Had he done something to offend the kid by accident? Akira was sure he’d never properly spoken to the boy before. 

“Is your bag meowing?” Dark Pit deadpanned.

The bag rustled once more. Then, out of the zipped out opening burst a small familiar head, with the ever  _ not cat-like at all _ “Nya!!” And for a moment Toon Link looked like he would throw Morgana, had the cat not been a living creature.

“What part of don’t get us caught didn’t you understand?” Toon Link grumbled.

“It’s fine, I’m a Phantom Thief, we won’t get caught.” Morgana replied, puffing his chest out.

There were problems with that statement. One, he was caught. Many times in fact so it was an absolute lie that he wouldn’t get caught. Two, Toon Link understood him while Dark Pit didn’t, meaning Toon Link had been to the Metaverse sometime. And considering the only people who could bring him there were the Phantom Thieves and Akechi, as no one EVER wanted to fight in Mementos, that could only mean one thing.

“Whatever. Here take your cat.” Toon Link sighed, dropping the bag into Joker’s hands.

“Oh, uh, thanks…” Akira replied, utterly speechless about how this whole interaction was going.

“Don’t mention it. Just don’t get caught again or something.” Toon Link replied, waving the Trickster off. 

With an awkward cough, Roy began leading them to the Training Grounds once again. Toon Link stuffed his hands into his silly orange pants pockets, sulking behind everyone else. Which honestly, was an entire mood but coming from the kid that seemed to be pretty energetic before, from what he’d seen from a distance, was pretty off putting. Maybe one of the Byleths, or the other two Links knew what was up. But chances of Akira actually going and talking to any of them were quite low.

It wouldn’t matter too much, once they were in the Training Room everything became clear. Off in the corner were some of the Spirit FIghters talking amongst each other, a little green haired girl from Fire Emblem, an anthropomorphic bird girl from Zelda, and “Ryuji?!”

“Oh hey bro! Hey have you seen Morgana? The cat’s been missing since yesterday.” the loudest of the Phantom Thieves asked.

Morgana burst out of the bag once more with an indignant cry of, “How many times do i have to tell you I’m NOT a cat!!”

“Dude can you at least tell us when you run off like that? Futaba was worried you were about to pull another Okumura arc.” Ryuji asked, ignoring Morgana’s request completely. The not-cat hissed and tried batting the blonde, much like an actual cat would, only proving Ryuji’s point further. 

Setting the bag on the ground beside Ryuji, they both had a mutual understanding without Joker even having to utter a word. Of course he would watch Morgana, and if the Hands had a problem with it, Ryuji was the one who brought him. It was a fool-proof plan, and everyone knew how much of a Fool Joker was.

And with that, Joker was brought off to a more secluded part of the battlefield by Toon Link. Twirling his dagger in his hands, Joker prepared for the kid. The good thing about this was he didn’t need to worry about being Akira Kurusu anymore. He wasn’t the delinquent kid with a criminal record anymore in this world. He was Joker, Leader of the Phantom Thieves, preparing himself for battle. And no matter what no one could actually get seriously injured. Maybe a bit battered up but that’s what Doctor Mario was for right? That signature feral grin spread itself across Joker’s face as the kid took his own fighting stance.

A training session of the ages this would truly be, but not for the reasons Joker was expecting.


	8. Where's Wild 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we answer a very important question while looking into Time's new daily schedule.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember how i said i wasn't going to write this until the end of MC Swap?
> 
> sike lol.

With his daily harassment towards Mario out of the way Wild finally remembered something. No not something from his past, why would he even care about that at this point, you know with all those new memories he’s created for himself and all. Though to be fair i wouldn’t blame him for wanting to forget about those ones too. You can only take a dog bitch for so long.

Wild finally remembered Time was a person in this tournament. Granted as a child but this only made launching him into the great abyss of space even more enjoyable. Nothing brought Wild greater joy in this world than knowing he could completely dominate Time in this state of being, a notion Time himself knew. Hence why the “oldest” hero usually spent his  _ time _ (wink) in his room listening to emo music.

That is to say he was listening to the soundtrack from Final Fantasy 7 on his own most of the time.

Passing by the training grounds he could hear the screams of a few of his fellow competitors. Taking a brief glance into the room he could see black shadowy monsters enveloping Dark Pit while Roy and the original Pit made a futile attempt to save him. 

Basically it was the same old thing. There were far more important things than saving Dark Pit from whatever was going on in there. It was probably just the Subspace army or whatever was going on in World of Light, back with a vengeance. Wind could deal with that, with his new best friend the dead detective guy.

There was food to eat, people to bother, and most importantly  _ ceilings to climb on. _ Well that might not be the most important thing but something was compelling him to climb on the ceiling like a spider. Some latent feral instinct from another timeline, perhaps. Or for fun. That was more likely. Maybe this was also why he felt compelled to throw Time through a wall sometimes.

On the other hand it could be because he just wanted to throw SOME child through a wall, and Lucas and Ness had quite literally never done anything wrong to him ever. Time on the other hand, he deserved whatever came for him. Stupid bitch telling them to act like adults and “real heroes” when he was literally a fucking 10 year old in Smash. Shut the fuck up Time you never have any room to speak about authority anymore.

As he approached the door to Time’s room he could hear the unmistakable sound of edgy weeb music pouring out through the cracks, seeping into the hallways. It graced anyone who dared pass by, who was exactly no one because they were all dealing with whatever was going on with the shadow people or whatever. Who cares.

Knocking on Time’s door loudly, hopefully over the music Wild began to scream. No, dear readers, not words or pleas of help. He was just screaming for the fun of it because, my dear children, screaming for absolutely no discernable reason is fun and I think you should give it a try.

The music stopped almost immediately. He could hear the shuffling of small feet against the carpeted floor stomping their way over to the door before it was so rudely slammed open revealing a child no taller than 4 feet with a face that could heat 1000 dead stars. Too bad this face was also 10, huh? The effect of being an intimidating leader was lost on Wild and he crouched down to Time’s height, cooing and pinching the man child’s cheeks.

“What the actual fuck do you want?” Time grumbled.

Throwing a hand over his heart Wild let out the most dramatic gasp ever. “Young man you shouldn’t know those kinds of words!! What would your mother think?”

“I’m literally older than you are.” Time deadpanned, forgetting who he was talking to for the longest moment.

“You’re over 117? I had no idea. What skin products do you use, you look so young!!” Wild countered flawlessly. Time was going to murder him, why couldn’t he listen to his music in peace after the bullshit he had to go through with Wind and that detective guy. Pancake Man or whatever his name was. Gods Time didn’t fucking care.

Feeling those old man bones going back to work, Time sighed dragging his tiny hands down his face. “What do you want, Wild?”

There was that smile again. The smile that could only mean he was about to either take over the world or eat an entire table worth of food before Mario’s very eyes. That  _ goddamned _ smile. It spread across Wild’s face like wildfire, oddly fitting given his nicknamesake, Time would think to himself later.

“Oh nothing. I’m just here with a humble bumble request for you, my dear leader.” Wild replied. Time didn’t like the way he was speaking to him. There was something too far off from the general basis of normalcy even for them, that worried the child man even further.

“What?” he asked again, terrified of the result laying ahead of him.

“Do you think I can become an Olimar echo fighter? I want to become a Pikmin.” Wild replied, wistfully. Ah yes, the Hylian dream. To become a plant creature, enslaved by a small man with a large nose living out your short existence wondering why this fate has befallen you. 

Sorry that was just a dark take on the plot of Mario Odyssey. Moving on from that.

“Is this really what you had to bother me for?” Time asked. What a fool he was for asking. The wicked grin grew larger, completely overtaking anything else on his face. It was another one of Wild’s special talents, opening his mouth cavity to overtake every single other part of his facial features. It was a mistake that happened in the Shrine of Resurrection. No one wanted to question it.

“No I just wanted to bother you and mention that you listen to your emo music too loud. You should really invest in some noise cancelling headphones or something. I hear there may be some on sale in the Villager’s shop.” Wild replied, shrinking his mouth back into a normal size and winking at the camera. Black Friday am I right fellas?

With a face one could only describe as the face of authority, still not useful in the slightest, he tried to size himself up to that full 5’5 he would be were he in his normal state. Sadly. He wasn’t and merely a child puffing out his chest like the big boy of the playground who finally got the courage to stand up to those nasty sixth graders.

“I order you as leader to shut up and leave me alone.” Time declared.

Patting the young boy’s head Wild began to coo at him once more. “Who’s a good tiny hero. Who’s really tiny and has no power over me in this world. You are. Yes you are.”

“I’m not a dog, who do you take me for? Twilight?” Time barked. Oh dear sweet delicious irony. Just you wait Time. That child Malon will have in some indiscernible amount of time will go on to continue the Hero of Time legacy, gracing you with Twilight one day.

_ One day. _

“Oh also I think our friends are being murdered. Anyways I’m going to go raid the cookie jar with the baddies. Have a nice afternoon, weeb!” Wild called, happily skipping off to steal all the chocolate chip cookies with his villain friends. The Koopalings deserved the best.

Opening his mouth, with no words being able to form, Time gaped. Did he say people were being murdered and walk off for  _ cookies?! _

With the plan of his day to listen to Burn My Dread -last battle- thrown out the window, Time dashed off to the training room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> we see what was going on while Wild was harassing Time next time


	9. What Makes a Spirit Figher

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> an uninvited guest enters the Smash Mansion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> haha hey look thats the name of the fic

No one ever thought to consider what may happen if a Persona user who wasn’t Joker tried to summon their Persona in the tournament. Spirit fighters had their own special powers but they were never meant to fully interfere like an assist trophy was allowed. Their own powers worked differently, almost as if they represent what they stood for back in their own world.

Akechi never knew what “items gravitation” was supposed to mean about himself, but he wasn’t really interested in finding out either. His mind was still on other things, so a useful spirit he was not. It’s not like he could even stand in the same room as the other spirits, after all Sakamoto was there. Morgana may accept him for now, but the best friend of Joker, he wouldn’t take too well to Akechi at all. 

It was more ominous to be standing in the shadows alone, watching the matches going on between the blissfully unaware partners. The two angels duelled, mirroring each other’s every move. That was quite useless in Akechi’s own opinion, what was the use in fighting yourself if nothing was ever going to happen. And a swordsman fighting a boxer. He could see how that could work, but Roy was  _ only _ trying to land a certain hitbox of his sword onto Little Mac. It didn’t take much to realize this wasn’t working, but Roy was determined as ever to land that single blow.   
  


The most interesting match seemed to present itself as Joker and Toon Link, not that Akechi was surprised at all about this. The small hero and Phantom Thief danced around each other with grace people only dream of. Considering how Joker was able to overcome a literal malevolent god this didn’t surprise Akechi at all on that end, it was Toon Link that interested him. He supposed fighting a large dual-wielding warlock holding the power of the gods was also nothing to scoff at. For a child as young as Toon Link was, even Akechi had to hand it to him for being strong enough to do so. 

As he watched the two heroes dodge with style, he felt something stir in the pit of his chest. Was it, pride? Gods he hoped not. Feeling proud over a child he’d only just met and who hated him? Disgusting. This wasn’t what he was hoping for when the child unwillingly teamed up with him.

An obnoxious energy of another person suddenly graced his presence. The fluff of bleached blonde hair, that awful posture. Yes he knew that form from anywhere.

“What do you want, Sakamoto?” Akechi asked.

“Just wanted to chat with ya. Morgana seems to trust you enough and no one else is really interested in talking to ya since, you know…” Ryuji replied scratching the back of his neck.

The bag around Sakamoto’s other shoulder squirmed before the cat creature poked his head out again. Morgana jumped down from the bad, oddly enough in his Metaverse appearance. “We’re taking a big risk trusting you here so you better cooperate with the others.” he said.

“So I’ve heard. Many  _ many _ times, creature. What none of you seem to understand is I had as much choice in this matter than the rest of you. I’m not even supposed to be alive, but here we are.” Akechi sighed. He was dealing with absolute morons.

“That’s the thing we don’t trust. Why are you even alive and why are you working with Joker? Or trying to, I guess.” Ryuji asked.

“To put it simply there’s another ordeal waiting for him back in our home reality, a different one neither one you will face. The power that person holds had the power to do this.” Akechi replied, gesturing down to himself. “I want to fix that and revert things back to normal, if that’s alright with you.”

The sarcasm that dripped out of his words struck a chord with Ryuji. Not for the actual sassy comment but rather he had to consider. Akechi was willing to sacrifice himself once, and given he was willing to do it again despite having a second chance at life…

“Why do you wanna go back to bein’ dead? I woulda thought you’d be all for being alive again. 

The detective couldn’t hold back the eye roll he’d been suppressing for so long anymore. Another sigh escaped the former detective prince’s lips before he replied. “Do you really think that I would appreciate living under someone’s control again? Honestly I’d thought better of you, was I a fool to believe so?”

Ryuji awkwardly coughed into his hand. Right he forgot about that part somehow. The bastard Shido did trigger something of a change of heart if Akechi had originally been willing to sacrifice himself for the Thieves. 

Speaking of Shido that only raised more questions. “Hey, can you tell us what’s happenin’ in your reality anyways? Some stuff don’t make any sense here.”

“In short, there’s a being that’s able to manipulate reality with their own Persona. He’s calling it his ideal reality where no one ever feels pain but unfortunately things don’t work out that way without issues.” Akechi explained. There was no use in using Maruki’s name. Sakamoto wouldn’t recognize it and honestly he wasn’t willing to go into details about the idiot doctor. He did his best to avoid bringing up Sumire as well. Neither of them needed to know about her situation for the time being, besides they’d think he actually cared about people and that wasn’t something he was willing to deal with.

“In a way that don’t seem that bad but what if someone’s ideals conflict with someone else’s? Like if Akira wanted you alive but the rest of us wanted you to stay dead then what would happen?” As Akechi’s eye twitch Ryuji began to back pedal frantically. Blubbering out words that didn’t even form coherent sentences.

“I understand what you were getting at but did you have to use  _ that _ as an example?” Akechi growled. Ryuji turned to Mona with a frantic look. There was no way he could save this on his own. 

Morgana shook his head, “Ryuji’s lack of brains aside, he has a point. If two ideas conflict there’s no telling what would happen. I doubt anything good. And that’s why you need Joker back. To fix it?”

“Doing is on my own would be difficult. And with all of you being brainwashed by this reality as well I’m afraid Joker doesn’t have much of a choice in his companions.” Akechi admitted. He hoped this was finally enough to get them to lay off him so much in the future.

“W-wait us too? For real?! That can’t be right I’d never abandon him!” Ryuji yelled.

“Unfortunately it seems all of the Phantom Thieves save for him were affected by this reality. You’re currently a star athlete again, and the creature is a human.” Akechi replied.

Ryuji wouldn’t be lying if he said he hadn’t wondered what life would have been like had Kamoshida not ruined his life. He wanted to help his mom out by getting a track scholarship and it seems that translated over to whatever hell reality Joker and Akechi were living. It was disappointing to know he didn’t just have his bro’s back but on the other hand, if it was done by a Persona there wasn’t much he could do to stop it.

Looking back toward the battlefield he watched as Joker let loose an Eiha spell at the elf kid. He was a lot slower than before. His moves much sloppier than in the MetaVerse.

To others he would have still looked graceful but Ryuji knew him well. They’d been together since the beginning he  _ knew _ how Joker worked in the Metaverse. Was he holding back? Ryuji couldn’t say.

The kid on the other hand moved just as recklessly. It looked like, from where they were, that the kid was going for the hardest hits with this sword, rather than using the other skills in his arsenal. The kid was mad, he was easily able to tell that.

“What’s up with the kid? He seems pretty pissed.” Ryuji had to ask.

“Being partnered with him I had to share what was going on in our world. He’s less than pleased with Joker’s choice to ignore it all.” Akechi replied.

Toon Link growled in frustration, throwing a bomb towards Joker. It missed by a mile.

“What aren’t you telling us? Besides wanting it to be done quicker you’re not one to rush things anyways. And that kid has to have a reason since you’re in no mood to lie to us .What else is happening?” Morgana asked.

UGH he was actually going to have to do this again huh? Begrudgingly he told the duo about Sumire’s situation. The brainwashing, her being captive by Maruki. Everything that was necessary. It predictably took Sakamoto longer than Morgana to let the words process in his head, he wasn’t exactly the brightest.

The bleach blonde’s first clenched by his side. “That doesn’t sound like him at all. Akira wouldn’t just abandon someone who needs help. Like, look at you, despite everything he still wanted to help your ass. This shit don’t make sense.” Ryuji growled.

“I’ve been wanting to ask him about that myself but as you can probably guess it doesn’t work out.” the detective sighed. Turning back towards the fight between the Phantom Thief and Toon Link he found the child had abandoned his sword and was flailing his limbs wildly at the understandably confused teenager. Between Joker and Arsene, who’d manifested to stop the boy, they looked more lost than any of them were.

He considered putting a stop to it but for one, that would require approaching Joker and Arsene. Sure there wasn’t much Arsene could do to him, after all Loki was waiting to join the fight himself, but there was no way he was going to test the demon lord.

It was at that moment Akechi decided to test out his powers as a spirit fighter. Ryuji and Morgana watched with childish curiosity as Akechi, by some force, moved a Sandbag towards Toon Link and Joker before smacking the flailing child with it. 

Toon Link froze, staring down at the offending item, before turning around and shooting a nasty glare towards Akechi.

“He’s a dreadful little creature. I almost enjoy your company.” Akechi commented before Morgana could get his words out.

Toon Link quickly resumed his attempts at punching Joker with no success. There were major faults with his small limbs in comparison to Joker. It was strange to see him getting so riled up but if it was his form of training Akechi really wasn’t invested in making him stop.

“You know he cares about you, man.” Ryuji suddenly stated. “Akira I mean.”

“I’m aware. Considering I’m alive for the time being.” Akechi replied.

“We never wanted you to die.” the fool tried.

But it was all for naught. “You expect me to believe that? You’re a fool, Sakamoto.”

“Listen. You made some pretty shit decisions that you can’t take back, and that we won’t forgive you for, but you’re still like us man. Society cast us out, you from the start.”

Akechi kept his eyes on the other matches, silent. Roy was still trying to land that hit. Little Mac seemed exhausted from the ordeal but was willing to help the young swordsman even still.

And the two Pits. He didn’t expect much from them before and that didn’t change quite yet. The mirror images still copied the other’s movements, and Akechi could see the frustration growing within Dark Pit.

The other spirits were more focused on their jobs than Ryuji and he were. Then again he supposed they were already either friends or in the process of becoming friends. Despite it all, Akechi was more than convinced he didn’t need friends to finish his task. He just needed aid from Joker’s friends and he could stay in the background doing his own business. 

That was the optimal route.

“Akechi?” the blonde asked. Was he really trying to keep the conversation up? What a fool. 

“We have nothing else to talk about. Please attend to your idiot. He can’t seem to land that one hit with his sword. I think the boxer is getting bored” Akechi deadpanned.

“Yeah will do. I was just trying to tell ya your ‘creature’ looks like he’s about to explode on Joker. You should  _ attend to that. _ ” Ryuji responded, horribly impersonating him at the very end.

True enough the boy’s arms fell limply by his side. He was tense, Akechi knew that from how tense the boy’s shoulders were. The familiar air of resentment radiated from the child as he stood before Joker on his own.

Before he had a chance to have second thoughts about stopping him, the training room descended into chaos.

-

Crouching down to the kid’s level Akira asked him to repeat what Toon said. He didn’t catch it the first time, being too quiet for anyone to hear in his own honest opinion. Not even Arsene had a clue what had been said. 

The boy shook uncontrollably in place. Whatever was bothering him was serious. As much as he wanted to help, Akira had no idea what was wrong so there was only so much he could do. Reaching out to set a comforting hand on his shoulder the boy jerked back.

“Don’t patronize me, Joker, I know about her.” Toon spat.

That was rather unexpected, and confusing. For a long moment he had no idea what the boy was getting at. Because the universe had it out for sassy anime protagonists, he would very quickly realize what.

“Sumire.  _ He _ told me about her, you know. Can you really call yourself a ‘hero’ when you’re just abandoning your friend?” Toon asked.

There was only one other person in this world who knew that name. Stumbling back Akira tried to suppress a gasp. “How did you-“

“Like I said. Your detective told me. Now tell me why you’d abandon your friend who is  _ clearly _ in need.” the kid pressed forward. He really wasn’t going to dance around the topic was he.

While technically correct in some regard, it was obvious Toon Link didn’t actually understand the situation. At all. While  _ technically _ correct it was bad he was ignoring the fact Sumire was probably in some trouble, one Maruki didn’t seem like the kind of person to straight up kill an innocent teenage girl. At least from what he understood about Maruki’s situation. Maruki was trying to “help” people, as stupid and backwards as it was. 

So in a sense Sumire would be fine unless he and Akechi tried to do something. Which was going to be literally impossible while in Smash. On top of all that, with the ideal world and all that bullshit in the background, how exactly do you kindly break it to your friends “yeah, you parents are dead” or “hey did you know you broke your leg and can’t run properly anymore, and everyone despises you for defending yourself”. He didn’t even want to think about what he would possibly have to say to Ann and Shiho. That wasn’t something you could just bring up in a casual conversation then be like “oh yeah can you pass the ketchup?”

Besides that, despite being a hero in his own world, the nuances behind said word were completely different between Japan and a fictional world from a video game. Of  _ course _ you would be revered as a hero and praised for your doings as a kid who’d killed basically Satan, turned the bitch into stone and trapped under the sea. For one, there was no criminal justice system to decide what was right and what was wrong. Joker was going to jail when the world returned to normal despite saving Japan from having all their desires taken away.

Yeah he basically saved them all from turning into mindless zombies, unable to think for themselves, and probably being obliterated by a god but no. Nope he was going to jail after this was all said and done.

And Toon Link honestly had the gall to wonder why he wanted to enjoy his experience in Smash Bros.

“It’s cool and all you want to play middle ground for Akechi and I but seriously. Don’t go butting into other people’s business. You really don’t know what you’re getting yourself into so just stop. Alright?” Akira replied. It seemed so easy, like it would take no time for Toon Link to just agree and move on from there but sadly it was not meant to be.

There were things Akira could be grateful for Yaldabaoth teaching him. Third Eye was objectively one of the most useful abilities he’d been granted in the Metaverse, and it was an absolute blessing he was still able to use it to a certain extent in Smash. Not that he would ever mention it to anyone since the Hands got mad over a cat. They probably wouldn’t take to Third Eye that well either.

So, the moment a red outline blinked around Toon Link he knew something was wrong. The boy stepped towards him, leaving a splash of pink and orange beneath his feet much like Joker’s own when he was in the Metaverse. Now it didn’t take a genius to realise this wasn’t normal behaviour for someone who didn’t come from his world. or even anyone outside of Mementos.

From within the sea of his soul, a power stirred within him. Rather than the voice of Arsene, it was as if eleven other voices had been awakened by the surge of Toon Link’s power. Asene’s feathers ruffled coming to the same conclusion as the rest of them.

They weren’t dealing with regular Smash Bros shenanigans anymore. In a bath of blue flames Joker’s costume flared to life. Behind him he could hear the young Lord of Pharae shout, followed by the all to familiar gurgling of Shadows. Little Mac, who honestly looked somewhere between tearing the room apart and wanting to cry for being dragged into this bullshit had his fists raised and ready to go. On the other side of the room Dark Pit was getting consumed by a Shadow he’d never seen before. An oddly large black mass of arms carrying a large blue mask. 

The power that swelled from the creature was enormous. He could almost hear Futaba in his ear warning him about the fight ahead. Now for him and the Thieves that would have been perfectly fine. He wouldn’t have minded taking out yet another large Shadow, that he was used to. The rest of the fighters in Smash, however, were not.

As much as he wanted to help the angsty angel there wasn’t much he could do with Toon Link still out for blood. What kind of mess was he getting into.

_ Trickster I should warn you, I sense a familiar power nearby. _ The Impure Queen whispered to Joker. A few of the others who resided in his soul agree with Mother Harlot, but none more than the certified Good Boy himself. Joker didn’t understand why Cerberus was so excited at the mention of another, very likely with the power of the Wild Card.

_ Worry not for now Trickster, the fight lies ahead of you. What will you do? _

Realistically, the answer was call upon Arsene and fight. The problem with that idea was, the Shadows that rapidly surrounded them, the large one, consuming Dark Pit like it was no one’s business and the fact the room was earning an eerie green glow instead of the Metaverse’s bright red.

A quieted zap does the job for Joker. With seconds to spare the Thief jumps out of the way of a shot from a Ray Gun. Toon Link stumbled back, glaring daggers behind Joker. Ah yes, he forgot there were guests watching.

“What are you standing around for, you idiot? Have you softened so much while being here you can’t even take on a mere Shadow?” Akechi spat, with the offending gun in hand. No, not his usual Black Mask gun. The Smash kind, so not really a gun at all.

“Bold words for a man who missed his target twice, Detective.” Joker replied. Akechi barely had a moment to process his rage while Joker saluted to the Detective and backflipped away.

“Looking cool Joker!!” Morgana had the gall to call. The not-cat zoomed off after his leader. Sakamoto lingered for a moment before following behind Morgana, at a reasonable distance so no one knew they were together. A rather useless action considering all they were in their Metaverse costumes.

With just the boy left to Akechi, the detective couldn’t help the feral grin that spread across his face. Though there were certain rules behind what a Spirit Fighter could do, especially to an actual fighter, he supposed no one ever planned for this. Even through the Subspace War, and the fight against Galeem and Dharkon.

The rules in this case were mere words. He and Loki were going to  **_break them._ **

-

Despite being the two powers behind the creation of the Smash world, the Hands knew there were things outside of their own control. The fighters that were summoned from strange worlds had their own rules, whatever made them work wasn’t up for the Hands themselves to decide. They could limit how much of that power these Heroes could possess. After all, pitting someone who could kill a god versus a sword wielding avatar of a greater being, wasn’t something easily balanced. But there was only so much they could control.

Before them was a strange woman dressed entirely in blue. She carried herself with grace, seemingly unphased she had just forced herself into the room the gods of the Smash world lived. Tucked under the woman’s arm was a thick book, the same colour as her dress.

She smiled at the Hands, in a way neither could tell if it was sincere or it was purely professional. Power emanated from the book under her arm, countless voices whispered from inside the pages.

“Greetings, I must apologize for my sudden intrusion, great Hands of the Smash Universe. My name is Elizabeth. I am, what you may call, one who rules over power. Such as yourselves.” the woman introduced herself, bowing before the two Hands.

“You’re not a spirit, an assist trophy or a fighter. How did you get in here?” Master Hand asked cautiously. Considering how many times the Hands had been taken over by some evil power it seemed only natural to be worried, especially by one who boasted being called ‘one who rules over power’.

“I used my legs and walked through the door of course.” Elizabeth replied, giggling quietly at her own joke. “Pleasantries aside, I am here to warn you that your world will soon fall to ruin. Such an event shouldn’t have presented itself in your world but like the Fool, the possibilities are endless. I eagerly await how you will attempt to deal with this power.”

Before Master Hand had the ability to question Elizabeth further she bowed once more, disappearing from the room with a shower of blue sparks. “Until then, farewell.”

The Hands exchanged a look, the best two beings without eyes could. The ominous brief warning from the strange woman was, well, worrying. More importantly they had no idea what they even meant. The world would fall into ruin..

“Should we ask Mario to deal with it?” Crazy Hand asked.   
  


Without hesitation Master Hand responded. “Absolutely.”

-

To say things were going well in the Training Room would be a complete lie. Despite their own experience in the Metaverse Joker, Morgana and Ryuji found that only their Personas were effective against the large Shadow. And even then that was a stretch.

Despite the others awakening once more, Joker had yet to be able to summon one of them. The only Persona to heed his call was Arsene, who’s Eiha skills were completely ineffective. The most effective means of attacking the Shadow were physical Persona skills. Even then, Dark Pit was still trapped by the Shadow so finding the right opening was hard to say the least.

The Shadow sent four towering cyclones of wind towards the heroes. Rather than actually trying to hit its enemies, the Shadow seemed to want to keep them away from it. What it wanted from Dark Pir was hard to say. Morgana suspected it had something to do with the fact he was apparently the mirror copy of Pit, though if that was the case why attack him instead of the original Pit?   
  


On the other side, Toon Link let out a horrible choked scream. Akechi himself lept back in surprise as the child started convulsing, the all too familiar black ooze dripped out of his eyes similar to Kunikazu Okumura’s mental shutdown. Neither he or his Persona had caused this. Morgana could vouch for Akechi that he never killed Toon Link’s Shadow. But there was no denying this had something to do with a mental shutdown. Or something very similar.

The scream of the young hero summoned more Shadows into the Training Room. Quickly followed by Young Link, the Mario Brothers and Kirby. They took the scene with the exact amount of horror as one would imagine. Walking into a room full of chaos with two of your friends seemingly dying before your very eyes was the last thing any of them expected.

“Mama mia, what have we gotten ourselves into?” Luigi asked.

As Mario was about to leap into action, as the chaos reached its peak, there was a brief moment where time seemed to stop. A gunshot rang out through the room, the shattering of glass. A power Akechi, Joker and Morgana knew too perfectly.

  
In the distance a calming voice called out, “ _ Orpheus. _ ”


	10. Where's Lucina I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> an equally important question gets answered. What's Lucina and the Awakening Crew doing right now?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> be careful what you wish for

Lucina didn’t understand what was going on. Her father had suddenly called her to the Marth corner, a corner of the mansion dedicated entirely to Link’s Fire Emblem shrine. Why the shrine was called the Marth Shrine, and why she was here she could not fathom.

From what she’d heard, there was a battle for everyone’s souls going on in the training room. Or something like that. The name of the music tracks in Smash were confusing at best most of the time. Then again it was a track from the Persona series so it’s not like she would really get it any time soon.

Standing in the corner covering himself with strings of lights was her father. Both the Robins held the strings, perplexed looks on their faces. Sitting off to the side at a reasonable distance was Morgan, pretending he was not related to any of them in the slightest. And even further from that, Tiki from her time and Severa.

“Father, with all due respect. What are you doing?” Lucina asked. Chrom’s face lit up brighter than the lights he was attaching to his body upon seeing his daughter, wildly gesturing her to come over. Though hesitant, she slowly got closer, remaining a reasonable distance much like Morgan was.

“Lucina! I’m so glad you’re here! We are covering ourselves with lights since the Ethereal Moon Byleth speaks of so much is coming soon!” Chrom exclaimed, throwing one of the strings of light towards her. They fell to the floor with a quiet thump. Lucina didn’t even bother trying to humour him.

“As much as I would like to spend more simple times with you father I don’t think we should be doing this right now. Our allies in Smash are in danger.” Lucina tried to explain. “Also I’m not so sure an actual moon is what Professor Eisner speaks of.”

On cue, a crash reverberated through the entire Mansion. Honestly, she could have sworn she started to smell smoke. 

“Lucina,” Chrom started, tripping over the many wires by his feet. “There’s a war going on at our home. There was a war going on here when we were summoned. I think we should be allowed to have fun. After all there are over 70 of us here, on top of the hundreds of spirits and assist trophies. Not everything is our fight to face.”

“Again, with all due respect father, what the fuck?” Lucina asked. “I’m not leaving our new friends to die. I’m pretty sure Little Mac was screaming about how Toon Link and Dark Pit might be dead.”

“Didn’t we leave the remaining people of Ylisse to die when we went back to the past?” Morgan asked.

Lucina opened her mouth, about to protest. Before realizing he was entirely correct. Before again opening her mouth to protest because as far as she was aware, Morgan still had complete amnesia and shouldn’t remember something like that.

“Severa, you like fighting. Don’t you agree with me?” Lucina asked, turning to her mercenary ally. Friend was a little bit of a stretch from Severa’s end.

“Meh. It’s not Ylisse.” Severa replied, before returning to scratching her name into the floor.

“Severa you literally fight for the Hoshidan army at some point. Or was it Nohr. Honestly who cares it was Fire Emblem Fates.” Lucina deadpanned.

The Corrins, who had been wandering over to the Marth shrine, also interested in the commotion going on beside it slumped away. Such was the life of being a Corrin. Nothing but despair knowing their game could have been great but the writing was so awful it ruined nearly everything about the series until Echoes. 

Berkut for Smash.

“I see your facts and logic Lucina, but Chrom is forcing me into this lights business so you have to by default.” Severa replied.

Sighing. Lucina realized there was nothing she could do to stop this madness. Perhaps if they got this over with quicker they could go be actual help sooner. Entertain her father’s strange ideas of bonding,  _ then _ help the other Smashers.

Even her mother, the best tactician Ylisse had ever seen, and the inexplicable male counterpart to her mother that Chrom was equally as invested in had betrayed her. Remaining silent while they continued to help Chrom cover himself in the lights.

Once finally finished wrapping himself in lights the man beamed at Lucina. “Look, Lucina! I shine! I shine brighter than any star! I shine brighter than that worryingly large moon in the sky!”

Nearly everyone dropped what they were doing to stare out the window. True to his word there hung a large yellow moon, casting a green glow into the room. The lights on Chrom’s body flickered before turning off completely. How strange, they’d never seen a moon so big, besides the one the Skull Kid occasionally summoned. She hoped it was nothing like the moon Skull Kid summoned.

“Maybe we should do something after all.” Severa said.

From behind her, someone chuckled. “No matter what time, or what world, humans are all the same aren’t they?”

Spinning around Lucina found herself facing a boy she’d never seen before sitting on top of a table. His canary yellow scarf fluttered down beside him. The boy had a friendly smile on his face, and yet something about it was unsettling. She couldn’t place if it was from the fact he appeared out of nowhere, or how piercing blue his eyes were even in the dark. He waved towards them all. “Hello.”

“I don’t think we’ve met. Are you a new fighter, or spirit?” Female Robin asked.

“No, a friend and I are passing through. We’re looking for someone named Joker. Has a white mask, entirely dressed in leather. He’s hard to miss.” the boy replied. “Oh yes, I forgot, my name is Ryoji Mochizuki. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

Looking around the room, Robin found there was no one else with them. Turning her attention back to Ryoji she had to wonder what exactly he and whoever his friend was wanted with Joker. Though a little weird he was a nice kid, and as far as she knew he’d done nothing wrong. On top of that Ryoji had said something rather odd.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘humans are all the same’? Aren’t you a human?” she asked.

Ryoji’s smile softened, turning back up to the moon. “In some ways.” That answered none of her questions, but in her time of knowing Tiki and Panne she couldn’t exactly dictate whether she could count his answer as odd or not. Tiki was part dragon, and Panne was something like rabbit.

As the tactician blinked, Ryoji suddenly appeared in front of her. He didn’t look like he’d actually moved, rather he teleported before her very eyes. The young man studied her face for a moment before leaning back satisfied.

“Um...personal space.” she muttered.

The more ominous smile spread across his face once more. The boy laughed, tucking one hand in his pocket while holding the other over his chest. “You really do remind me of my dear friend. You may have more in common than I thought.”

Robin turned back to her male counterpart and Chrom, who’d picked himself up off the floor and untangled the wires from his body. Male Robin shrugged, unsure of what to even respond to that with. Morgan, Tiki and Severa were as much help to her as Male Robin. 

“I’d worry more about the fight at hand in your own world. If the two of you are really alike…” Ryoji trailed off. “Well, considering you’re not in your world for the time being I guess it’s nothing to really worry about.”

Looking at Lucina Ryoji continued, “And for the fight in the Training Room, don’t worry too much about that either. There’s not much you could have done anyways.”

“Wait what do you mean by that?” Lucina asked, stepping towards Ryoji. The boy pointed towards the window, as the moon started to return to its normal size. 

“You know, death is the end to everything. As much as you try to delay the inevitable, it comes for everyone one day.” he said, turning away from the Awakening Crew. 

Lucina blinked, readying her retaliation speech about fighting for a better tomorrow, though she found that once her eyes opened once again Ryoji had disappeared. How strange that boy was, and what exactly was he trying to stop them from fighting for. Maybe the Training Room because someone else had it covered, however he’d spoken an awful lot about their own battles.

Perhaps it was best to leave it be for now, no matter how much she wanted to investigate this. 

The lights flickered back on, and with them the mess by Chrom’s feet. He looked between the Awakening Crew, glancing between all the tense faces. “Anyone else want to become a being of light?”

Tiki and Severa had no idea why they tagged along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just remember Phanman you asked for this. you gave me the words you wanted them to shine. and shine they did. literally


End file.
